


Returning to the Company

by Markov_Debris



Series: Company Series [15]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Canon Temporary Character Death, Episode: s02e01 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Gen, M/M, Series Spoilers, Year That Never Was
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-26 00:37:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 39
Words: 45,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12544892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Markov_Debris/pseuds/Markov_Debris
Summary: Jack returns from the Valliant with a lot of rifts to heal, rifts between him and the team, between him and Ianto, as well as rifts inside himself.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This story does mention some of the events from Company of a Ghost but you do not have to read that story to enjoy this one.  
> For those interested in the history of my stories. Although I started posting this as soon as I finished posting Company of a Stranger/Company of a Ghost, there was another story that had popped into my head at the same time and in the end I chose to concentrate on that story first before finishing this one. I am not sure whether that story influenced this one or not but before I began to finish this story I had watched Children of Earth.

It was the look on Leticia Jones’ face that made Jack’s heart beat with hope again.  She didn’t need to say anything for him to know that Martha Jones had survived New York.

He looked around the engine room for the shadow, the shadow that last night looked like Ianto Jones, spoke like Ianto Jones, gave him hope like Ianto Jones but there was nothing.

It was wishful thinking.  He knew it was his subconscious mind urging him to hold on, using the only person capable of making him hold on, truly hold on in the darkness.

_The universe awaits Jack... it waits for you to return to life._

Jack didn’t know what the plan was that the Doctor told Martha to enact.  He knew though what a paradox machine was, he knew that if it was destroyed, all the earth had suffered since its activation would be undone.

He needed it to be undone.

Jack had been forced to watch every member of his team die.  He hadn’t been prepared for how much that would rip him up inside, you can never be prepared for the deaths of those you love.

Gwen and Owen had been first.  Captured together three months after the Master’s rule over the Earth began.

He had been forced to watch as they were both tortured to death.  Before the torture began the Master asked both of them if they had any words to say to him.

Owen refused to say anything.  Surly and defiant as ever, Jack felt so proud, even if that enraged the Master’s fury.

Gwen’s words he clung to, held them close to him, let them nurture him as it got bad.  He’d felt no guilt at holding on to them deep inside, even though he wanted to hear another say them more, but he didn’t want to think of that other.

Gwen’s death had been slow and lingering.  He asked her only questions about what she had said, driven further confessions from her lips over the days it took for her to die.

The day it took for Owen to die was a blink in comparison and his corpse was kept beside her while she was slowly killed until the Master decided it was a little to rank and in the room and had it removed.

Toshiko was next and she too said nothing, she too was defiant but with dignity.  When she looked into his eyes for the last time there was no blame there only understanding, only a wish for him to keep fighting.

He kept her silent wishes for months holding them as close as Gwen’s words.  Until it was Ianto’s turn.

Jack hadn’t thought much about Ianto Jones before he was brought before him, the Doctor and Martha’s family.  All the others had been killed before him alone, he wondered how he had betrayed Ianto that he was given the humiliation of a larger audience.

Jack hadn’t wanted to think about Ianto because even in thoughts, the Welshman did not deserve to be in this dark place.  So he buried his memories of his beautiful young man and clung to the words of the vibrant Gwen.

It didn’t work though.  Trying to forget Ianto didn’t work.  Even before his public death, Ianto Jones would come to him in the darkest moments.

Conversations, intimate moments, wise words from one too young to be so wise, but too experience in pain not to be.  In the darkest moments as hope dwindled Jack was with Ianto Jones.

_The universe awaits Jack._

Ianto’s last words to him.  He had felt Ianto leave himself before the Master began his enraged torture.  Ianto hadn’t screamed because he wasn’t there, leaving the mad Time Lord with just a shell to damage.

Ianto had once told him that deep grief made you dead inside.  You were so much a part of one person’s life that their death made you lose part of your life.

When you were dead inside you were waiting for rebirth.  You worked your way through the pain, struggled to become a new you without your loved one.

You clung to their memory, and you let what you thought they would want you to do guide you.  When you were ready to be reborn, you returned to the universe.

Only right now Jack was in a strange sort of limbo.  He felt the death of his friends and lover so deeply, yet he knew if the Doctor’s plan worked he would have them back.

Or would he?

The general election date had been announced not long before he left with the Doctor.  He couldn’t return until after it was over, after the point in time when the Master turned on the Paradox Machine.

That would be months after he left.  He knew the team survived without him or he could not have seen them die but how had they changed?

Their words and actions at their deaths gave him hope but when he returned, they wouldn’t have been chained up and tortured, at least not to their knowledge.  To them he just left them and come back.

Did he want to go back?

He knew he couldn’t keep on travelling with the Doctor.  Jack loved and trusted the Time Lord more than anyone he knew before he met him, but he couldn’t stay.

 _You’re just wrong_.

He was immortal, gifted with life by Rose Tyler.  An act of love, a curse for eternity.

Jack knew enough about Time Lords to know how sensitive they are to time.  It was an instinct he had a little of himself, it was something you picked up as you time travelled just as soldiers pick up on danger the longer they’re at war.

Jack knew his immortality was unnatural, he remembered his first death, remembered being pulled back every time he returned.  In his heart he knew that a time sensitive would be uncomfortable around him.

The Doctor though hadn’t stayed to explain.  He’d just run, left him surrounded by the dead and fled.  Left him alone to wait.

For that, Jack wasn’t ready to forgive him, wasn’t able to stay with him.

Sure he could ask the Doctor to take him home and the Time Lord would, but where was home?  He hadn’t had a home since he left Boeshane to go to war.

Until he came to Cardiff.  If you couldn’t call home a place you had stayed in for the best part of a hundred and thirty years, where could you call home?

In Cardiff, with Torchwood, he had found a purpose while he waited.   He had shaped Victoria’s secret agency into something the Doctor would be proud of, and Jack took pride in his team.

Jack’s eyes again returned to the shadows, hoping to see one that looked like Ianto Jones.  He knew there would be nothing there, because he no longer needed anything to be there.

Martha Jones was safe; she was enacting the Doctor’s plan.  Time would go backwards and he would have his team alive and whole to return to.

He would have Ianto Jones to return to, to come home to.

Last night’s shade had given him hope again.  He was still dead, still in limbo, between lives, but there was a new one waiting, waiting for time to be right again.

The universe awaited.

 


	2. Chapter One

As Captain Jack Harkness watched the Doctor mourn, he knew his decision was the right one.

He had been disappointed by the Doctor’s decision to give up travelling through space and time to look after the Master, but he understood it.

He remembered the Time Lord’s ‘not quite ready to believe’ hope that he was not alone in the universe.  He knew how much the Master’s actions hurt him bitterly, despite the forgiveness he gave.

To Jack it re-opened a wound.  He wasn’t right for this universe, he was wrong, he had been left behind, rejected while the monster got to stay.

But Jack knew about loneliness.  He’s experienced it in various forms.  Yet while he was removed from humanity by his immortality, he was still mostly human.

He felt his own pang of sympathy, and a little guilt, that he was glad when Lucy Saxon shot the Master.  For all the venom he felt for one Time Lord, he hated seeing his friend re-live the loss of his people with this latest death.

So he made sure that Martha, her family and the UNIT soldiers kept away while the Doctor grieved.  He felt a moment of guilt that he too would leave soon, add to the loneliness but he couldn’t change his mind.

The Doctor carried the Masters body into the TARDIS alone.  Martha and Jack followed leaving UNIT to get the Jones family back to Earth.

He helped the Doctor build the Master’s Pyre and was ready to leave as dusk fell.  He was not a mourner at this funeral, but he could respect the need to farewell the dead.

“Thank you,” the Doctor said as he waited by the unlit pyre.  The Captain just nodded but he continued, “Jack.”

“Take me back to Cardiff,” he interrupted quietly.  The Doctor nodded in understanding and turned back to staring at the unlit pyre as night drew further in.

Jack steered Martha back to the TARDIS then headed for the biggest bathroom.  He had had no time to freshen up since they left the Valiant and he was still covered in blood and filth.

The bathroom had everything and Jack Harkness used it all.  Body scrubs, body polishes, shower gels, bath oils, water baths, mud baths, showers, back scrubbers, nail brushes, loofahs and sponges.

His skin was pink, sensitive and wrinkled like a prune after five hours of ablutions.  There was only one place he wasn’t clean from that year and that was in his memory.

He wasn’t ready to face that yet.  Part of him felt that, in staying, it might dwell and fester.  He knew who he wanted to talk to if he was ever ready to tell.

It was a kind of test, not just of his intended lover but of himself.  After being called wrong, being told he was a freak, he wanted to know if he could still be loved.

Of course it wasn’t that easy.  It wasn’t as simple as spill all and see if he was still accepted.  He had to be accepted as himself first.  He had to be forgiven for leaving so thoughtlessly.

The way to Ianto Jones’ heart wasn’t through gifts, kisses or sexual prowess.  The thing he valued most was his cause, saving his planet.

The only two times Ianto had betrayed that cause, his heart had been breaking, first with Lisa then with Jack.

In 1941 he had in a reckless moment of passion that trampled on Ianto’s feelings, feeling he never knew the Welshman had.

In return he hadn’t known the depth of his own feelings until Ianto said no.  It was a rejection of everything by a heartbroken man.

Joy of reunion, brief words and a couple of heartfelt, forgiving kisses before he left were not really enough.  Especially after being gone for so long without word.

That meant that Jack had to return to Torchwood.  He had to be accepted by the whole team as their leader before he could be accepted by Ianto as his lover.

There had been no declarations of love when the Master executed Ianto Jones, just a message of good will and hope.

Jack had held onto that until Martha was given her death sentence.  That almost broke him, but his subconscious sent him a vision of his beautiful Ianto willing him to hold on, and he had.

Jack dressed in his familiar clothes and great coat before looking at himself in the mirror.  For once his vanity wasn’t telling him he looked good.  It was wondering if he looked good enough.

He had had such a fifty-first century relationship with Ianto that he had forgotten he was three thousand years early.

If he wanted Ianto back, if he wanted to let him know how much he meant to Jack, he was going to court him in the twenty-first century way.

Dinner and a movie, simple; how hard could it be to issue an invitation?  He consciously ignored the fact that the last time he had bothered was before Ianto was even born.

He rehearsed his offer several times in front on the mirror.  He changed his posture and hair several times as they didn’t seem right.

Jack then laughed at himself as he remembered that what he looked like didn’t mean anything to Ianto.  His sincere invitation was what was important.

Feeling as prepared as he would ever be, Jack felt ready to leave the safety of the TARDIS and face his team, face Ianto Jones.

 

 


	3. Chapter Two

Jack looked at the concerned faces of the Doctor and Martha but he didn’t meet their gaze.  He was glad that neither asked how he was, they already knew the lie he would answer with.

They walked with him out of the door to the railings overlooking Roald Dhal Plass.  They stayed there watching the people in silence.

He closed his eyes for a few moments enjoying the feel of the sunlight on his face.  It wasn’t even a warm day but that didn’t matter.  The cool breeze was perfect after months spent mostly in the engine room of the Valiant.

He opened them to the familiarity of everyday people doing what they did in Cardiff, made Jack feel relaxed.  He felt a smile cross his face as he was reassured that they were alright, that they would never know the suffering the Master put the world through.

Yet even as Jack watched he became aware that he was feeling more and more distanced from his companions.  He wanted to go and to be with the people of Cardiff, but didn’t quite feel ready to say goodbye.

“Time was every single one of these people knew your name.  Now they’ve all forgotten you,” Martha said sadly.

Jack knew she just wanted to fill the awkwardness with noise but it became the signal he needed.  As the Doctor replied “Good,” Jack knew it was time to stop being part of the Time Lord’s story and continue with his own.

“Back to work,” Jack said ducking between the railings.

“I really don’t mind.  Come with me,” the Doctor said sincerely.

Jack knew the offer was genuine.  He hadn’t been the only one thinking about things during the year of hell.  Bonds renewed by shared experience and pain meant that he had been accepted by both the Doctor and his TARDIS.

Jack’s decision didn’t waiver.  Had the offer been made a hundred and ten years ago he would have jumped at it doubts and all.

Adventure and excitement were a big part of him but it wasn’t enough anymore.  He had grown to rely on his city, his team, on Ianto and he needed them all.

“I had plenty of time to think that past year, the year that never was,” he told them then turned to look at the water fountain his base lay beneath.

“And I kept thinking about that team of mine,” then he turned back, “like you said Doctor, responsibility.”

“Defending the Earth, can’t argue with that,” the Doctor said approvingly.

Suddenly the Time Lord grabbed his arm and exposed his wrist strap.

“Hey, I need that,” Jack protested as the Doctor reached for his sonic screwdriver.

“Can’t have you walking around with a Time Travelling Teleport,” the Doctor explained getting to work.  “You could go anywhere, _twice_ , second time to apologise.”

“What about me?  Can you fix that?” Jack asked almost desperate for him to say yes.  “Will I ever be able to die?”

“Nothing I can do,” he replied sadly then added lightly, “You’re and impossibly thing Jack.”

The immortal chuckled, “I’ve been called that before,” and he turned away and turned back again.

He raised his arm in salute “Sir,” and the Time Lord gave him a two fingered salute in return.  Then he looked to Martha and winked, “Ma’am” and she waved at him before he let his hand fall.

Just as he turned away again he remembered and stopped.  That nagging little question that had stayed with him all year so he turned back.

“But I keep wondering, what about aging?  Cos I can’t die but I keep getting older.  The odd little grey hair,” he asked indicating his head, “you know.  What happens if I live for a million years?”

“I really don’t know,” the Doctor replied smiling.

“Okay vanity sorry,” he said with a dismissive wave.

Now he was ready.  Now he was ready to tell him what he’d been thinking about ever since he witnessed that conversation between Martha and the Doctor, when she told him he might not be the last Time Lord in the universe.

“Yeah can’t help it.  I used to be a poster boy when I was a kid living in the Boeshane Peninsular, tiny little place.  I was the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency,” that seemed to impress both his companions.  It was now or never.

“They were so proud of me.  The Face of Boe they called me.”

He knew as their faces froze that his story would have an ending.  It was reassuring, an ultimate purpose for an impossible thing.  He had a message, a warning to deliver to the Doctor and Martha Jones.

“I’ll seeya,” he said and turned away.

He hoped to see them both again.  He was certainly going to be living long enough for that to happen, but that was something to come, there were more important things to do first.

He ran across the Plass to where he belonged.  He wasn’t sure what he would find, what sort of welcome he would received but he was at ready to face it.


	4. Chapter Three

Jack deactivated the alarms and activated the invisible lift.  He could tell immediately that the Hub was empty.

He wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing.  He remembered the Master’s message that his team had been sent to the Himalayas and wondered if they were back yet.

He went immediately to his office.  The room was heavy with the smell of Gwen’s favourite perfume invoking memories of her.

Running down a corridor after she first witnessed a Weevil attack, the brief kiss when he’s saved her from the alien sex gas, training her to shoot, her pounding his chest demanding that he save Rhys when he was already on a slab in the morgue, her words to him before she was tortured and killed.

Jack shied away from those memories.  He looked around desperate for a distraction.

Spotting his computer he booted it up.  He noticed someone had tried to gain access to his files and failed.  Whoever it was hadn’t bothered to ask Ianto.  He was sure the Welshman knew his passwords.

Reviewing the CCTV records showed that the team had gone out to lunch.  A glance at the clock made him realise they would be back soon.

A sudden panic set in.  He didn’t want to be discovered just sitting here.  He didn’t know how he would react if just the smell of Gwen’s perfume would affect him so badly.

He needed to check they were okay first.  Needed reassurance, the same reassurance that he had needed with the people on the Plass.

He closed down the computer and headed upstairs.  He wanted a suitable place to observe his team.  Just as he found a good spot he remembered to reactivate the alarms.

A few minutes later the cogwheel door opened and Jack watched his team enter.

Distance made it impossible to hear what Gwen was saying but one noise came out very clear.  The sound of Ianto’s laughter.

Jack leant over the edge staring at the Welshman’s face.  He wasn’t sure if he imagined the sadness still in his eyes, but the smile and laugh were real.

Jack felt a deep pang of something as he watched them all moving to their places around the Hub.  Ianto headed to the coffee station and he became his calm professional self once more.

Before the Welshman reached his destination he hesitated.  He looked around as though detecting something out of place.

Jack quietly stepped away so that the Welshman couldn’t see him as he looked up.  He felt cowardly but secretly pleased with Ianto.

He rested his head against the wall behind him and closed his eyes.  Ianto’s face, smile and that laugh filled his mind.

_He’s found someone else.  Someone good for him I hope._

_Why else would he laugh like that, smile like that?  I only had rare glimpses of that beautiful, happy man.  It must be someone special too make him blossom like that._

_That’s why there were no words of love for me, only words of hope.  I don’t know what happened to his lover in that timeline, but he wouldn’t be unfaithful even for me._

_I shouldn’t have come back.  He’s happy and I can only ruin that._

The sounds of soft, barely audible footfalls interrupted his thoughts. They were discrete steps only heard by him because he longed to hear them.

 _Ianto’s trusting his awareness more too_ , Jack thought as he began to move silently away.  _He doesn’t need me._

“Ianto,” Owen’s voice rang out through the Hub.  The Welshman stopped still uncertain.

“What’s up mate you look spooked?” the medic asked as he clanged to the younger man’s side.

“Sorry I thought...” those Welsh vowels made Jack’s heart soar even though he felt crushed.

“You okay.  You seem a little out of it since we got back,” Owen said concerned, and Jack could tell the medic wasn’t talking about their return from lunch.

“I’m fine really, I just thought...  It isn’t important,” Ianto replied.

“Good because you promised us all coffee,” Owen reminded him.

“Coming right up,” the young man stated and turned away.

The sight of Owen being tender sparked more affection than jealousy.  It reminded him of his former resolve.

He knew before he left the TARDIS that it might be difficult persuading Ianto to become his lover again.  Having another in his heart should make very little difference to his overall decision about the team.

It would hurt, it did hurt, but it was the friendship and the confidences shared that he would miss the most.  Jack felt that he should still be able to convince Ianto to exchange those.

He also owed it to the others to stay.  Seeing Owen reminded him of the fight they had all put up, how they had all resisted the Master.

He couldn’t be a coward, not knowing their bravery.  It was just that, knowing Ianto had someone else, cut deeply.

He only had himself to blame though.

He knew Ianto’s feelings, knew how vulnerable the young man was after Abbaddon, but he had left anyway.

The whole “The Doctor has a time machine” excuse didn’t really work as he knew the Time Lord’s track record when it came to getting to the right place at the right time, without the Master’s temporal paradox business.

It had been months for Ianto and he had moved on.  He probably attracted the eye of someone and they has set about repairing the damage Jack had added after Lisa.

_Who wouldn’t want to make Ianto smile or laugh?_

When Jack was sure Ianto and Owen had moved far enough away he risked looking out across the Hub again.  He couldn’t help watching the Welshman’s graceful movements as he delivered coffee to each member of the team.

As the young man headed to the archived he felt no need to watch anymore.  Jack began to make his way up to Ianto’s Tourist Information Office.

At lease there he could find a computer and catch up on everything he’s missed.  Add a little to his air of mystery.

As he moved away he didn’t notice Ianto hesitate on the threshold to the archives.  The Welshman turned back to look over the Hub again, to look for something that wasn’t there.

 


	5. Chapter Four

Jack sat at the computer in the back office of the Tourist Information Shop and felt a little bit naughty.

There were three areas of the base that belonged to Ianto alone, the coffee station, his office in the archives and here.

At the coffee station their roles reversed and Ianto Jones became a god and Jack an unworthy supplicant on a quest for caffeine perfection.

With the archives Jack had proved he had the respect, care and caution the artefacts within deserved, and was allowed within on Torchwood business.  His leaving proved him less competent with his archivist.  It would be a while before he could intrude upon Ianto’s domain for anything personal again.

The office behind the Tourist Information shop though was forbidden territory, unless there was an emergency, and as long as he kept his hands by his sides at all times.  Not that Ianto had personally banished him, it was more a self-imposed restriction.

After the first few weeks at Torchwood Ianto decided that being their guard dog meant that their main entrance should have a better cover.  After all they accepted the odd emergency delivery as well as the odd takeaway there.

So Ianto set up a Tourist Information Office.  He even went as far as becoming an employee of the Welsh Tourist board and drawing a salary paid by the hour which he informed Jack should be deducted from his monthly pay.

One day after Ianto had finished sorting out everything, Jack went to see how he was doing and decided he was in the mood for a little flirting with his newest employee.  The Welshman proved to have a quick wit and an expert at evading.

Jack was just getting around to asking more personal questions, the questions he would later be accused of not asking as he pointed a gun to the Welshman’s head, when Suzie walked in.

He couldn’t remember if it was the desperate excitement in her voice, or the guilty start at being caught flirting with Ianto when he should be working, but he jumped around to give her his attention.

He must have knocked something because suddenly there was a domino effect.  Within seconds Ianto neat and tidy little office looked like it had been hit by a gale.

Ianto Jones’ eyes blazed with anger for the first time since he’d known Jack.  The immortal couldn’t tell if the deep passions those eyes hinted at, or the frosty politeness as the Welshman told him he would bring his coffee down soon, got him harder.

For a week Jack had this fantasy in his head of getting Ianto angry at him, culminating in a repetition of the accident.  He imagined all that passion focusing on him in hard, angry, sex then him pleading forgiveness in gentle apology sex amongst the detritus.

Before he could get anywhere with his plan, Ianto sent him an e-mail apologising from getting behind in his archiving duties because he had to clean up the Tourist Office and that he would work overtime to get them straight.

Jack didn’t get a chance to talk to Ianto about it before the Rift interrupted.  By the time he remembered the e-mail it was too late, the Welshman had managed to get up to date with his archiving.

Of course there were other things that put off other plans.

He never considered Ianto to be prudish, but he did feel guilty that he had survived Canary Wharf when hundreds, including his girlfriend did not.  When the Welshman erected the barriers between them, Jack had no desire to break them, break him.

The start of the weekly reports and his being shut out meant that the only compensation Jack could offer Ianto, was to follow his wishes and stop flirting for a while.  He also decided not to deduct the young man earnings from the Welsh Tourist Board from his Torchwood earnings, and permitting him to go on training days and attend seminars with them.

It was too late for his fantasy of angry sex amid the debris now.  He was more likely to receive more barriers than his desires.

Shaking himself, Jack turned his thoughts from his quiet, passionate Welshman to his computer.  He knew most of the security, though he felt a pleased that it had been increased, but that was nothing he couldn’t handle.

Jack was technically competent to handle most things he was just three thousand years ahead of everyone here.  Plus it was a little boring.

Toshiko was not only better at handling the technology available to analyse and manipulate the tech they collected, she also had a better way with it.  Tech just spoke to her, spilled its secrets at a level Jack didn’t possess.

He knew however when something was too dangerous for her to examine.  Mary’s transporter for example, if Tosh had gotten hold of it she would have understood its principals and workings.  She could have replicated the technology and Torchwood would have had Transmat capability a few centuries to early.

Once he had overridden the security and alerts on Ianto’s computer, adding a few of his own to alert him if the situation downstairs changed, Jack remotely accessed his files and e-mails.

He was still being sent copies of everyone’s electronic reports.  He began to skim through the titles after he realised how much work his team had done in the months he was away.  Two things caught his eye.

The first was a medical report from Owen stating that Ianto had been on five days medical leave but that he was now fit for duty.  It didn’t state what was wrong with him, only that Ianto was to be under Tosh’s supervision while they worked on a project for a few weeks afterwards.

The second was an e-mail from Ianto thanking Jack for his thoughtfulness and informing him of his change of address, which he had updated in his personnel records.

The e-mail dropped a lump of ice in Jack Harkness’ stomach.

Jack knew that Ianto had been bought his house by his late father.  It was a gift to his son to make sure he had a home of his own after he was gone.

Ianto hadn’t ever lived there before coming to Cardiff.  Jack suspected he only had done so because the Welshman had left most of his money behind, and what he hadn’t left he had spent on trying to heal Lisa.

Jack had organised all the assets and the compensation that belonged to Ianto after Canary Wharf into a trust, then he had arranged for it to be looked after by Ianto’s solicitor.

If the Welshman had used that money, bought himself a new flat and was renting his house again, that mean he had intended to leave Torchwood.  Ianto wasn’t a quitter, so how bad must things have been that he wanted to forget all about Lisa, forget about him.

Jack couldn’t read anymore, couldn’t hide in this forbidden domain of the man he had hurt so badly.

The immortal turned off his alerts just as one was about to go off.  He shut down the computer restoring the security to Ianto’s settings.

He fled out of the Tourist Information centre through the front door.  He was half way along the walkway when Ianto Jones entered through the secret entrance.

Just as with the Hub, the Welshman could sense something wrong, something out of place.  By the time he looked out of the glass front door Jack’s retreating back had disappeared.

 

 

 


	6. Chapter Five

Captain Jack Harkness leaned against a parapet of one of his favourite tall buildings.  He could see the whole of Cardiff from here and no one could see him.

He had watched this city change for over a hundred years.  People and buildings evolving while he watched and waited for a man from beyond time and space.

As he thought about the Doctor, he looked up and cursed the sky.  It had to be that particular shade of blue, the same colour as a certain Welshman’s eyes, with the same hint of a storm coming.

No this had to stop.  He was Captain Jack Harkness, ex-Time Agent, companion of the Doctor, impossible thing, he should not be mooning after a pair of blue eyes.

There was also the sinful way Ianto pronounced his vowels, the silent strength that body possessed, the way his calm made Jack feel calm and the way his passion blazed like an inferno.

The Captain shook himself.  Ianto had someone else, someone that made him happy and it wasn’t as though Jack lacked other opportunities, even if he limited his choices to just Torchwood.

Yet when he tried to imagine a dark haired, pale skinned Welsh beauty he always had the same blue eyes.

Jack tried to shake himself out of his current obsession.  The worst thing about it was that its object would never understand.

It wasn’t just that in the months he’d been away Ianto had gone from deepest hurt to another’s healing.  It was knowing that Ianto had done so because he never expected Jack to return.

_The universe awaits Jack... it waits for you to return to life.  For you to explore its beauty and wonder.  For you to find peace perhaps love.  It hopes for you to find your way home._

A message of goodwill from a former lover.   A mix of words spoken at his death and those provided by his own mad subconscious at a moment when he was about to lose all hope.  A request that Jack find someone to fill his heart with life and joy.

Jack had realised too late that it was his friendship with Ianto that filled him with life and joy.  Now he was waiting like a princess in a tower to be rescued from misery.

This was not what Ianto would want for him.  Ianto didn’t want him to doubt himself.  He would want him to get on with his life.

Temporal Paradoxes were a curse.  The Ianto Jones who wished him joy and happiness was dead.  More than that, he no longer existed, was no longer a shell tortured to death at the hands of a mad Time Lord, no longer a ghost of his subconscious giving him the encouragement he needed to survive.

Ianto Jones was now the man that laughed at Gwen Cooper’s joke.  He was alive and vibrant, and he still wouldn’t want to see Jack in pain because he was compassionate and kind to his soul.

They were all alive, his team.  Beautiful Gwen with her embracing heart and her words that he had needed to hear so much, Owen, surly and irritable but concealing tenderness and concern, Toshiko brilliant and shining with intelligence, soft with understanding and grace.

He shouldn’t have run from them because he was nervous.  He should have just waited in his office for them and said “Hi” like he hadn’t been away and hoped that none of them shot him.

It was beginning to get dark now and the rain was starting to fall.  Standing around moping was going to do at all.

He had to make a dramatic entrance now, for the sake of his ego if nothing else.  He was Captain Jack Harkness, intergalactic hero and returning to them and no other way would do.

Only one member of the team ever saw through his hero act.  That one would know instantly that something was wrong if he turned up without the right dramatic moment.

Jack wasn’t ready to talk about his experiences over the last year.  He needed time and the right level of trust, and part of him felt that he needed one who was a lover and a friend to talk to.

He had just spent a year enduring pain so that others would not.  He let the Master focus his sick attentions on him so that he would leave the Doctor, Martha’s family and the Earth alone.

That was not the actions of a coward and he wasn’t going to let the least assuming, most self depreciating, quiet, mild and gentlest member of the team turn him into one now.

Jack suddenly registered that his wrist strap had picked up an alert at the Hub quite some time ago.  His team were out on a mission.

All his doubts and fears were suddenly shoved aside.  His people were heading into danger and it was past time he returned to head there himself.

He accessed the information and the GPS and realised that the SUV was on the move.  Their path was erratic suggesting that they were following something.

Jack realised that they were heading for a residential area some distance away.  He wasn’t sure how to get there but he had to.

He had lost his team once and he wasn’t going to let anything happen to any of them now that he was back.

Captain Jack Harkness was already running down the stairs.  It felt good to run so fast after so long; and he was on a mission, he had people to save.


	7. Chapter Six

Jack ran after the SUV following on a parallel course.  He thought once or twice that he was never going to catch up, but always whoever they were following would suddenly change course to bring him closer.

He was a few streets away then the SUV stopped.  He heard the scream and homed in on it; a hundred years had attuned him to the sound and perfected his ability to locate trouble.

When he got to the back of the house, to the French windows the team had their guns pointed at a red blowfish.  Jack recognised the species as the first one he had caught on behalf of Torchwood, that it should be there to greet his return felt symmetrical.

The Blowfish’s attention seemed to be on Ianto; Jack couldn’t really blame it on that score.  He paused to catch his breath.  He couldn’t enter through the French windows by stealth if he was wheezing like a steam train.

One of the advantages of being unchanging was that his body seemed to have stayed fit, no atrophy, even thought he had had practically no exercise for a year.  That meant his breathing relaxed far quicker than he really had the right to.

Not that he complained as he used his wrist strap to unlock the window and began to gently slide it open.  He could hear the Blowfish taunting Ianto.

Jack knew Ianto was hesitating because the alien’s words struck a chord.  The Welshman was also not a killer.  He needed it to be his last or only viable option before he would take the shot and with a hostage in the way he wouldn’t want to take the risk.

It was one of those things that Jack loved about him.  Right now though, he was letting his doubts grow and that would never do.

“...can you shoot before I do?  Can you?  Dare you?  Will you?  Won’t you?”

BANG.

The world seemed to become uncertain as the Blowfish fell.  It seemed to Jack for a moment that he was in limbo, between being gone and being alive.  That he was waiting for them to acknowledge that he was real and here as they had to turn around to see him.

They all turned in one movement.  The look of shock and surprise on their faces was priceless.

“Hey kids did you miss me?” Jack said and laughed.

Gwen snapped out of her shock first.

“Owen see to your patient,” she ordered curtly and the medic turned his attention back to the bleeding man beneath him.

“Ianto,” she called then repeated herself before the Welshman turned to her.

“Ma’am?”

“Some tea please,” she said waving at the family and he nodded in understanding.  “Then help Tosh deal with the body and see to the car.”

At the sound of her name the technical genius snapped out of her shock by herself and went to check that the blowfish was dead before examining it.

Gwen stared at Jack for a few minutes knowing that her orders were being carried out.  Jack felt so proud of her for keeping the team together.

Then she turned away, ignoring him as she went to comfort the mother and her daughter.  She handed them the retcon laced tea Ianto gave her and talked soothingly to them as they drank it.

Jack’s eyes watched Ianto as he joined Toshiko by the blowfish.  He shot Jack a couple of glances as he worked.

Ianto got out a knife and cut down the section of the curtain that had been splattered with alien brains.  He got a bag from his pocket to put it in and sealed it up.

_My Ianto always prepared for everything, except me._

The Welshman and the technical genius both gave him unreadable looks as they carried the body out to the SUV.  They then both began to clean up the house.

They were working efficiently as a team and he was beginning to feel a little left out.  He began to think of things to say to them, especially to Ianto.

As Jack began to step forward to speak to the Welshman, Gwen intercepted him.  She dragged the Captain out to the SUV without saying a word and bundled him in the back with Tosh.

Jack had a last glimpse of Ianto getting the spare tyre out of the back of the sports car as they drove back to the Hub in stony silence.

 


	8. Chapter Seven

Ianto Jones was quietly and efficiently changing a tyre.  His movements were economical, focused and automatic as his mind was occupied with other things.

_So Jack’s back._

_He looked well, but then he always looks well when he has mischief in his eyes.  Very_ him _to pick the right dramatic moment to appear so that we all stare at him like guppy fish._

_I suppose it could be taken as a sign that he knows he did the wrong thing leaving us without word, and he’s hoping that his big damn hero act will help him get into everyone’s good books._

_Don’t think that’s going to work on Gwen though, that woman knows how to be angry with a person.  Jack will find a way around her though, he always does._

_I wonder if she regrets accepting Rhys’ proposal now.  I wonder if Jack made the moves on her, she’d drop him like a hot brick.  Not fair to Rhys, but a distinct possibility after that disastrous tea with her future mother-in-law last week._

_What about me?  I loved him._

_Do I just used to love him?  Do I still love him?  Do I want to love him in the future?_

Ianto paused in what he was going as his throat suddenly tightened and a fist of pain clenched his heart.  It took great effort and many calming breaths before he stopped being in the verge of tears.

_I cannot be his special friend again.  I cannot be his friend that he has sex with.  Maybe I could be an ordinary sort of friend, but not that._

Ianto knew it wasn’t the fantastic sex that had made him fall for Jack.  It was the lover’s intimacy they shared, the moments when the universe was just about them.

They had called it a special friendship but really it wasn’t.  Even in the beginning it was more than that.  It was just that neither wanted to acknowledge it.

_I was afraid.  I didn’t want another lover so why did I act as though that’s what he was.  I knew what he was like, knew he would never stay with me.  Did I think I wouldn’t be heartbroken if he was just my friend?_

_I know all this, told myself all this.  Why did I wait?  Why couldn’t I have just told him as soon as I realised I was in love?  It would have made his leaving with the Doctor much easier to cope with if we had already broken up._

_Why has he come back now?  What has he come back for?_

Ianto took his mind back to the house, to the looks that passed between them as he cleared up the dead alien.  _Hardly the most romantic setting for a reunion._

The Welshman’s mind already dismissed the desire and longing in Jack’s eyes as him being glad to see the team.  Instead he focused on the faint flicker of anger in the Captain’s eyes as though he was disappointed.

_What the hell right does he have to be angry with me?  I’m the one who got left behind?  I’m the one whose heart was so crushed that even the thought of another relationship makes me feel sick._

_I should just go out after work, get completely plastered and have that meaningless shag I should have had months ago?_

_God he’s not even been back five minutes and already I’m thinking about sex.  It’s as though he’s hotwired my libido or something._

Ianto stepped back from his handiwork and began wiping his hands.  He shook his head sadly knowing he hadn’t meant a single thing he’d just thought.

He stood there for some time re-establishing his calm before putting the tools back in the boot.  He closed the lid and stood there thinking.

_As his archivist I’m glad he’s back.  Gwen’s been good, caring, leader after a shaky start; but then she was just as affected by his leaving as I was._

_Gwen though doesn’t have Jack’s experience, his respect for what we do, his charisma.  He’s a good leader if he lets himself be and it’s good for Torchwood that he’s back._

_As his friend I’m also pleased to see him.  I miss our talks and his presence.  I like knowing that he’s alright._

_As the man who loves him though?  I do love him even now.  I don’t think my insides would feel as though someone had ripped them out with their fingernails if I didn’t love him._

Ianto walked around and got in the car to stop the swell of emotion again.  He felt hurt and confused and uncertain and he didn’t know what to do.

_I need to talk to Jack, I need to speak to him, I need to know where we stand, I..._

The Welshman once more turned away from the turmoil within himself.  His problems could wait.

He needed to know how the others were reacting.  He needed to know if Jack was going to be accepted back by them.  He needed to know if Jack was staying.

Ianto Jones started the car leaving all his troubles to brew in an ignored part of his mind.  He focused solely on his driving as he got the red sports car back to the Hub.

He entered his place of work as the perfect employee.  All his feelings shut away, he mask in place.

His eyes automatically went to Jack as he entered the Hub from the garage entrance.  The Captain was standing by his office being ignored by the team as they worked.

There was pride in his eyes as he looked at them, but hesitancy in his body language.  They were being a team without him and the Captain wasn’t sure how to step back in again.

Ianto deliberately ignored Jack and went to tell Gwen what he’s done with the car.  When she called him back to deal with the body, the sushi joke came automatically to his lips as a lot of jokes had begun to since the two of them had come to an understanding.

“Got pretty organised without me,” Jack said as Ianto begun to head for the morgue and he had to fight another wave of emotion.

The sound of Jack being slammed against his office door a few seconds later brought the Welshman’s attention immediately back to him.  The Captain looked so alone with them all so angry at him.

Part of Ianto wanted to remain silent.  Wanted to watch and wait for the others to pass judgement, but there was a question he needed an answer to.

 


	9. Chapter Eight

The sullen silence of the drive back to the Hub was not part of any welcome home that Jack had envisioned.  They were like a family who had had a huge argument and now no one wanted to speak because they all knew it would make it worse.

Every time Jack thought of something to say Gwen or Owen would glare at him then ignore him.  Tosh was ignoring him too but that was more because she was focused on her job of making them and an alien blowfish invisible.

Despite the fact that he was the best person for the job, Jack felt that leaving Ianto behind with the sports car was petty on Gwen’s part.  He was sure that Owen would have wanted to drive it if the tire hadn’t needed changing first.

 _Maybe she’s  jealous and wants a chance of having me all to herself_ , Jack thought remembering the words Gwen had spoken before she was about to die.

Gwen glared fiercely at the smile he directed at her.  _Then again maybe not, maybe she’s trying to protect Ianto from me._

Jack was hoping that the quiet with which the Welshman had organised that house was just the mask of professionalism, but he couldn’t help thinking that actually, it was him.  He was trying not to think about the hurt he had glimpsed in Ianto’s eyes.

The smiling, laughing Welshman he’s seen earlier had obviously organised his life, sorting himself out like a neatly laid dining room table.  Jack had come along like an incompetent magician and whipped the table cloth away and spilt all the crockery on the floor.

Jack hated the idea as soon it came to him.  It didn’t help his previous thoughts that, despite his unspoken promise to his team, Ianto might be better off without him.

The prolonged, uncomfortable silence did nothing to improve his mood and he was feeling insular and childish by the time he reached the Hub.

“Home sweet home,” he said cheerfully enough as Owen parked the SUV.  His backup personality was good for these occasions but he was sure that if Ianto had been there he would have heard the note of sarcasm.

He headed straight for his office and left them to deal with the alien corpse.  He needed them to think this was the first time he’d entered the Hub, they would be mad if they realised he had been spying on them earlier.

He hung his great coat up as though he was claiming the room as his own again.  He toyed with a few of his things, turned on his computer and then got bored of being idle while the others worked outside.

Gwen moved between them checking reports, receiving reports and giving orders.  They worked efficiently with her and Jack couldn’t help feeling left out.

He was not aware of how his eyes focused on Ianto as soon as he became visible.  Ianto ignored him too, that professional mask in place.

“Ianto,” Gwen called making the Welshman turn to her.

“Hello,” he said.

“Sorry, can you deal with the body when it’s cold,” she asked.

“My pleasure unless you’ll be making sushi,” Ianto replied with a slight smile.  Jack felt a little stunned; wit hadn’t been part of the professional mask before.

“No the morgue will be fine thank you,” Gwen replied, her voice laughing, a smile on her face and she patted the Welshman on his chest.

“Got pretty organised without me,” Jack said quietening the slight burn of jealousy.

“Yeah well we had to,” Gwen replied coldly not looking at him.

“Hey did you redecorate in here?” Jack asked having finally noticed the green in the boardroom.

“You left us Jack,” Gwen said suddenly, angrily shoving him into his office door frame.

Jack sighed knowing that his own bad moods were his trying to escape having to say what he needed to say.

“I know I’m sorry.”

“We knew nothing Jack,” she accused her voice pained and furious as he looked at her.

“Where were you?” Toshiko asked calmly, reasonably and without sounding like she was pushing for the answer she deserved.

Jack appreciated that and looked over them with a slight smile before answering.

“I found my Doctor,” the smile remained as he remembered his friend, Martha and knowing Rose was alive on a parallel world.

“Did he fix you?” Owen asked gently.

“What’s there to fix?  You don’t mess with this level of perfection,” the backup personality replied flippantly, trying not to betray how much it hurt that he couldn’t be fixed.

“Are you going back to him?” Ianto asked quietly as though he hadn’t meant to but couldn’t help it.

“I came back for you,” Jack said looking Ianto up and down, wishing the Welshman could realise how much he meant those words.

Ianto though shied under his gaze and Jack suddenly remembered that they weren’t alone.

“All of you,” he added looking over his team again.

Before another awkward silence could consume them, or worse more questions, Tosh’s computer beeped.

“Rift activity,” she announced and headed to her computer with Owen following.

With a last look at Jack, Ianto turned away with the others.  They were getting ready to go out.  He wasn’t going to be cold shouldered anymore.

Making only a quick detour for his coat he bounded after them towards the SUV.

 

 

 


	10. Chapter Nine

As soon as Jack appeared in the Hub’s garage Gwen told Ianto to budge up.  This sandwiched the Welshman between herself and Toshiko leaving him with the passenger seat.

Ianto’s eyes met his in the rear view mirror.  They apologised for not being ready to deal with what Jack had said, that he needed time to think.  The Captain hoped his own eyes conveyed understanding back.

There was a slight nod and Ianto began to focus on whatever Tosh was doing.  Instead of being irritated the technical genius seemed to expect his interest and accepted his comments.

Gwen and Owen were no longer so openly hostile but Jack could tell that their interrupted conversation was not over.  He also knew that the Welshwoman had deliberately separated him and Ianto.

When they arrived there were already police at the scene.  They had an area taped off and there were men in plastic clean suits hovering around.

Gwen didn’t wait.  She was out of the SUV and grabbed Ianto to come with her.  The Welshman followed and Jack reflected that he still had a magnificent arse for any suit.

“Looks like there’s a body,” Jack said as PC Andy Davison moved to allow Gwen and Ianto under the tape.

“This isn’t the source of the rift activity,” Tosh said.  “It’s coming from above us.  I’d say the roof of the car park next to us.”

“Owen go and take a look at the body, Tosh we’ll take the roof,” Jack said getting out.  He didn’t miss the look the other two exchanged or the nods of agreement.

For once Jack took the lift up to the roof.  It wasn’t a sudden fit of laziness but he didn’t want Tosh to be too breathless from the climb to talk; not because she wasn’t fit but he also didn’t want to wait to ask his questions.

“So how have you been Tosh?” he asked with a smile.

“He’s still single,” she replied getting out of the lift and Jack frowned.

“I asked how you were,” he stated feeling a little put out.

“I'm fine and well and Ianto’s single,” she stated concentrating on her readings.

“Am I that transparent?” he asked.

Suddenly she rounded on him.  For someone so much shorter than him, she could seem terribly fierce.

“What are your intentions towards him?”

“I...”

“Don’t start being coy or saying it isn’t any of my business.  I’m the one who helped him keep his life together after you left.  I don’t think he could survive you doing that again, not and stay as himself.  You said you came back for him now I’m asking you, what your intentions,” she demanded fiercely.

“He’s really single?” Jack asked surprised.

“I would have thought your ego would know that no one compares to you,” she said sarcastically and Jack winced.

“You broke his heart Jack,” Tosh said gently.  “In caring for Lisa he isolated himself from everyone.  His friendship with me, his relationship with you that was all he felt he had, all he was ready to have.

“You became such a huge part of his life.  It’s as though everything you had done to heal him after Lisa you ripped out and took with you.

“It took months for him to accept that I wasn’t his only friend.  To realise and become a proper member of the team, something you should have done more about yourself before you went away,” she said getting angry again.

“I know I’m sorry,” Jack said and her face softened slightly.

“So what are your intentions?” she asked.

“I don’t know what my intentions are Tosh.  I don’t know what he’ll allow me to intend.  I want a relationship with him, but that’s something we need to sort out together.

“But I’m not running away again Tosh.  I knew he might not want me back and this is my home.  I’ve lived here so long, I don’t think I really belong anywhere else anymore,” he was appealing to her.

The way to Ianto Jones’ heart it seemed was not just through his cause, through Torchwood.  The path was guarded by this fierce little Japanese dragon who would burn him if he tried to hurt her charge.

Tosh broke out into a huge smile.

“Good,” was all she said before returning to her readings.

Jack stood there stunned for a few minutes before her pointed stare reminded him that they were meant to be searching for signs of something coming through the rift.

“There’s nothing here,” Tosh announced as she completed looking at her half of the roof.

“Let’s see if that body has anymore answers,” Jack replied.

He jogged, smiling, down the stairs with her heals clacking noisily behind him.  One team member down, two and his former lover to go.

 


	11. Chapter Ten

Ianto felt a little relieved when Owen joined them, even if he did make a beeline for the body.  He knew it would only be a matter of waiting until PC Andy Davison was safely out of earshot for the interrogation to begin.

“So Jack’s back,” Gwen said staring intently at him.

“Yes,” Ianto replied.  “Unless it’s a shape changing alien.”

“He wasn’t an alien.  Was he?” Gwen asked.

“Tosh and I took some scans and checked him out while we were in the Hub.  It’s Jack alright,” Owen called over his shoulder.

“It’s been months.  Why was he away so long?  Why is he back now?” Gwen demanded looking at Ianto but again she was answered by Owen.

“You heard.  He wanted to ask the Doctor if he could stop being immortal.  He can’t so he’s come back to play the big hero and to get laid.”

“Owen,” she admonished.

“It’s what you wanted to know isn’t it?  He came back to play Captain and have his wicked way with the Tea Boy.”

“You’re not going to let him are you?” she asked turning again to Ianto.  “He hurt you.  Are you going to take him back?”

“You don’t know that he wants to have his wicked way with me as Owen so quaintly puts it,” Ianto said quietly.

“He came back for you and then the rest of us, he said so.  He hasn’t stopped staring at you since he made his presence known,” Owen objected.

“He always stared like that.  He likes suits,” Ianto said dismissively.

“And the hot six foot Welshman inside does nothing for him.” The medic sneered.

“Yes it could be any six footer as long as the trousers give the arse the right definition,” Ianto replied with a smile and turning his back by way of demonstration.

Owen mused that Gwen probably didn’t realise how much she was staring at the object in question.  Ianto though suddenly felt embarrassed and hastened away to question the CSI’s that were hanging back.

Gwen snapped out of her stare as she realised her prey had gone.  She was about to follow when Owen called out.

“Leave it.”

“Leave what?  I don’t know what you mean,” she said too quickly and defensively.

“If you want Jack go for him now.  That way Ianto’s heart isn’t going to break anymore,” the medic told her.

“Owen I’m engaged,” she replied sharply.

“So you’re going to stop going all moon eyed whenever Jack tells you what a good job you’re doing?” Owen asked nastily but didn’t wait for a reply before continuing.

“Ianto isn’t going to just jump in the sack with Jack.  He’s going to take some spectacular convincing and given Jack’s usual track record with bedtime conquests, I’m not sure he realises that.

“That means there’s going to be a vacancy for a while and if you’re quick you can fill it.  Make sure Ianto has the answers to his questions that you want him to have.”

“I’m happily engaged, I don’t want Jack,” she said not quite managing to sound as though she was convincing herself.

“Then why do you keep separating them?  You could have waited until Ianto finished with the tyre and I could have driven that car back.

“You could have let Jack sit in the back.  You didn’t have to grab Ianto just now and make him organise people away from the Captain,” Owen retorted.

“And you think Jack pushing him, whilst he’s feeling slightly stunned, until he gives in is going to be good for Ianto?” Gwen snapped still feeling defensive.

“You what?”

“I made the mistake of pushing him Owen, and he nearly left us.  I let my own anger and jealousy over Jack hurt Ianto, oppress him until he wanted to leave.

“Jack’s feelings maybe more noble, but they could have the same effect.  Unlike me, Jack holds sway in Ianto’s heart.  Ianto may not choose to leave he may choose to surrender.  If that happens it will crush Ianto.  Jack won’t get what we both hope he means he’s come back for.

“He’ll get an empty shell who’ll see no beauty in the stars.  The friend we’ve come to rely on will be gone, and he’ll be better off retconned and living a normal life,” Gwen told the medic angrily.

The beeping noise within the sudden silence drew both of their attentions to Jack and Tosh standing a few feet away.  The Captain’s face was unreadable.

Gwen’s head automatically looked around for Ianto.  Relief filled her when she realised he was still out of earshot amongst the SOCO team.

She glared at Jack for making her feel embarrassed and hurried over to join the Welshman.  Tosh placed a hand on Jack’s arm drawing him to follow her in examining the corpse.

Gwen and Owen’s words where reeling in his mind.  He didn’t want to crush Ianto, he wanted the laughing, smiling man he’d seen while hidden in the Hub.

Owen paused from his now intense examination of the body to exchange a look at Tosh.  She nodded and the medic flashed Jack a surprised look.

Two team members down, Torchwood’s heart and his possibly lover to go.  Why didn’t this little victory stop him feeling so bitter?

 


	12. Chapter Eleven

As Jack reached for the door handle of the SUV his wrists strap’s message alarm went off.

“Wow that never beeps,” Ianto said.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Jack said looking at him before turning his attention to his wrist strap and pushing the buttons to display the message hologram.

There, in blue light, was a sight he hadn’t seen in over a hundred and twenty years, his ex.

“I can’t believe I got your answering machine.  What can you be doing that’s more important than me?”

 _That’s my ex demanding as always_ , thought Jack trying not to let his eyes flicker toward Ianto.

“Anyway you probably traced the energy shift, found the body, all me.  Sorry about the mess bill me for the cleanup,” he went on as though a corpse was a greetings card telling Jack that he was in town.

“Now,” his ex continued clapping his hands, “drinks.  Retro log the transmission co-ordinates that’s where I am and hurry up, work to do.

“Help me Obi Wan Kenobi you’re my only hope,” he finished with that bad Princess Leah impersonation that he loved so much and was gone.

“Stay here, don’t come after me,” Jack ordered getting into the SUV.

“Who was that?” Gwen demanded.

“Stay here,” he repeated slamming the door and taking off with only one last glance at them.

Jack really hoped that the others would obey his orders.  It was asking a lot having only just re-established both his presence and his command, but they just weren’t ready for the likes of his ex.

The only one of them capable of understanding how dangerous his ex could be was Ianto.  That was only because the Welshman understood how dangerous Jack was.

_Why now?  After the year I’ve just had why couldn’t I settle back into things with a nice alien invasion?  Why him?_

His ex represented all the bad things that had ever happened in his life; all the bad things he had done with his life.

Jack had been sixteen when he dragged his best friend into war against the creatures who had invaded Boeshane and destroyed his family.  He told his friend it would be an adventure, he down played that it was also a chance for a little revenge.

A week after his friend had been tortured and killed in front of him, revenge had begun to fester very nicely in his heart.  Yet that was when Jack was saved for the first time.

They were an elite special forces unit knows as Saturn Company.  They took the underage, frightened, angry and still cocky soldier under their wing.

They taught him to think and taught him to fight.  Technical skills, undercover skills and intelligence gathering they made him into a Special Forces soldier and instilled in him their surprisingly moral code of honour.

Under their tutelage he lost his desire for blood thirsty vengeance and both his virginities.  He loved the men, women and aliens of Saturn Company and they loved him.

When the war ended two years later they hid his involvement with them.  They set him up to lead a better life and he joined the Time Agency in their honour.

His ex had been a spoilt rich kid who joined the agency to stick one to his parents.  It had taken a long time for them to get to like each other, _damn sexual chemistry_ , and they both were both responsible for corrupting the other.

Not that the Time Agency itself hadn’t done its share of corrupting them too.  That was the curse of power.

Jack took his hand form the steering wheel and unconsciously began to rub his stomach reassuringly.  When he realised, he returned it with a white knuckle grip.

If Saturn Company had known what he became they wouldn’t have been proud of him.  Circumstances though had already begun to change him before the agency stole two years worth of memory.

That was a pain even worse than the Master’s torture, he hadn’t just lost his memory.  He had lost a child no one else remembered he’d ever had.  That was something he never wanted to repeat.

He was saved for the second time when he met the Doctor.  The Time Lord made him think smarter, be braver and gave him a chance to redeem himself.

As Jack pulled up outside Bar Reunion, he stilled his thoughts of the past.  Put aside the fear that his third saviour might just as easily choose to curse him into darkness.

Time Agents, like con artists, learn to put on personalities like you put on a coat.  He wished he’d changed clothes before putting this one back on.

He entered the bar and there was his ex.  The Time Agent had his guns ready as they stalked towards each other.

They stood inches apart checking the other out, just like old times.  His ex’s pheromones filled the air and the bastard oozed sex the same way he had always done.

It had been over a year since Jack’s last night with Ianto.  The look in his ex’s eyes was the first one of genuine delight at seeing him he’d received since he got back.

Besides this was how they always were.

They grabbed each other and kissed.  Tongues fighting, hands grabbing roughly for dominance.

Then his ex pulled back and punched him.  It had been over a year since his last brawl so that was fine with Jack too.  So he signalled the other Time Agent to bring it on.


	13. Chapter Twelve

The red coated Time Agent leapt at Jack and they both smashed thought a pane of glass.  They scrambled up, both going for their guns.

Both aimed for the others head, both looked at each other in a way they had done many times before and then they both laughed.  This was a familiar dance with both of them and they both loved it.

“Are you putting on weight?” his ex asked.

“You’re losing your hair,” Jack retorted.

“What are you wearing?”

Time Agents, like con artists, know the value of the right name, right identity.  They usually changed from time zone to time zone, planet to planet.

“Captain Jack Harkness, note the stripes.”

“Captain John Hart, note the sarcasm.”

“Hey I worked my way up though the ranks,” Jack said defensively.

“I bet the ranks were very grateful,” John said with a knowing smile.  “I need a drink.”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Jack replied as they both lowered their weapons to head for the bar.

It was ironic that the first person to be truly pleased to see him since his return was his ex.  Sure Tosh seemed okay and Owen accepting, but it was Ianto and Gwen that he wanted to be glad that he was back and neither seemed to be so far.

John reached behind the bar and got them both a bottle of vodka.  They both removed the stoppers and the red coated time agent leant against the bar to drink.

“So how was rehab?” Jack asked hoping his disgust at the amount of liquid disappearing didn’t show.  He’d heard about John going in just before he left over a hundred years ago.

“Rehabs, plural,” John replied as more memories sparkled.

“Drink, drugs, sex and...”

“Murder,” John supplied wiping his lips.

Jack laughed, “You went to murder rehab.”

“I know ridiculous, the odd kill who does it hurt?” John sounded almost insulted at being made to go.

Jack though knew exactly who it hurt, he’s learnt that lesson too well over his hundred year wait.  He was falling back into his old ways back then and he couldn’t do that anymore.

“You clean now?” Jack asked concerned for the city’s safety.

“Yeah kicked everything living like a priest,” John answered with enough sarcasm to say ‘ _don’t be ridiculous_.’

Jack laughed and put down his bottle untouched.  He felt conflicted.  Ashamed of who he had been when he last saw this man, but John also brought back some good memories.

“So how’s the Time Agency?” he asked.

“You didn’t hear.  It’s shut down,” John answered.

“You’re kidding,” _how was that possible.  They’d been so powerful._

“No.  There’s only seven of us left now,” John replied sadly.

“Wow.”

No more Time Agency.  Considering all the bad things he’d done for them, all those terrible things he’d left behind that was a good thing.

All those con’s he’d pulled before he met the Doctor suddenly felt very justified.  Sure they were callous acts without his caring, but they had in a small way contributed to the Agency’s downfall.

Yet he couldn’t take pride in that.  They had deserved it sure but so would Jack if he’d stayed, if he hadn’t met the Doctor and Rose.

“It’s good to see you.  We were never the same without you,” John said and suddenly Jack knew where this conversation was going to head, and he couldn’t afford to let it.

The Time Agency had never sent John after him when he sent them a message about having found a Time Ships he could direct them to, for a price.  They’d been too smart; they knew his ex would have joined him in a heartbeat and not for the money.

Jack leaned closer just as John expected.  The excitement of the fight was making his ex exude pheromones but they were slightly bitter to him now.

“You need to go.  I don’t want you on my territory,” Jack said harshly.

“What?” John asked putting his bottle down and stepping away.  “Time was you couldn’t get enough of me on your territory,” he snarled grabbing his gun.

Jack ducked away as Hart shot at one glass door by the entrance then turned to shoot the one by the rear.

“Alright everybody out,” John called and from the entrance Gwen and Ianto appeared.

“Everything alright Jack?” Gwen called.

“It’s okay, okay, okay,” Jack replied putting his hands up placatingly as Owen and Tosh emerged though the back.

“You’ve got a team how sweet,” John said his voice beaded with sarcasm.  “Oh pretty little friend,” he added as Tosh came into the light.  “No blond though, you need a blond,” he finished turning back to Jack.

“God he’s worse than Jack,” Owen said.

“Oh do you have a team name, love team names, go on,” his ex said coaxing teasingly.

“Torchwood,” Jack said a shade defensively because he knew exactly what his ex would say next.

“Not Excalibur, Blizzard, Bikini Cops, no?  Torchwood oh dear.”

Jack felt irritable but knew that it was best to get the introductions out of the way.  He pointed to each of his team as he rattled off their names.

“Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper meet...”

“Captain John Hart,” his ex said in that slightly seductive tone familiar to all con artists who wish to seem important but harmless.

“We go back,” Jack said feeling Gwen’s glare demanding answers as to why he ran off.

“Excuse me we more than go back.  We were partners,” John protested.

“In what way?” Ianto asked quietly.

“In every way and then some,” John replied raising his eyebrows suggestively at the Welshman.

“It was two weeks,” Jack protested fearing that the rift between him and Ianto was being opened even more by the ex-Time Agent.

“Except that two weeks was trapped in a time loop so we were together for five years.  It was like having a wife,” John grumbled.

“You were the wife.”

“You were the wife.”

“No you were the wife,” Jack said firmly, it was another familiar argument, if Ianto hadn’t been there it would almost have been fun.

“Oh but I was a good wife,” John said smugly.

“I bet you were,” Toshiko said smiling and everyone turned to her, she’d even surprised Jack.  “What?” she added defensively.  “Don’t pretend you haven’t noticed he’s cute.”

“They’re just shy,” John said sadly.

“What are you doing here?” Jack demanded and his ex sighed.

“I was wondering when we’d get to that.”

John unveiled his wrist strap and began to push buttons.  Jack could feel the sudden interest his team showed.

“It’s the same as yours,” Tosh stated.

“A little smaller,” Jack replied with automatic defensiveness.

“But lasts much longer,” the other Time Agent replied looking up at Jack.  The immortal moved to face him, get a better view of the lies as John continued.  “Get two Time Agents in a room and it’s always about the size of the wrist strap.”

“Yes, sorry what’s a Time Agent?” Owen asked.

“What he never told you about his past?” John asked innocently, knowing he’d struck a nerve.

“No he hasn’t,” Gwen said coldly.  John’s eyes sparkled at the confirmation that lots of nerves had been struck.

“Anyway,” John said pressing a few more buttons and activating a hologram projector.  To showed a cylindrical canister that could have held anything.

“I’m working with this woman, beautiful, clever, sexy yadda yadda yadda and we both get shot, and as she’s dying she begs me.  She tells me about these radiation cluster bombs.”

“Well I don’t like the sound of that,” Owen stated.

“Three canisters, contents beyond toxic, swallowed up in a rift storm,” John continued despite the dubious look Jack was giving him.

“And ended up here,” Toshiko stated.

“Bingo.  That’s the downside of your city being built on a rift in space and time.

“Now left to their own devices the radiation will break down the canisters and then infect your people and planet.  They need to be neutralised.” John said to his enwrapped audience.

“What do you get out of this?” Jack asked.

“A dying woman’s wish,” John replied and the immortal just looked at him sceptically.

“Now there’s only one problem, I don’t know where they are.  Hoping local knowledge might help,” John said looking at the team.

“When we get back to the Hub I can run a city wide scan on radiation surges and cross reference that with the rift activity during that time span,” Toshiko answered.

“What are you the brains and the beauty?” John asked.  Then as Jack stepped closer he added, “See together it’s an easy job.”

“We do this, you get out of here when it’s finished.  Right away,” Jack told him firmly.

“Does this mean I get to see your house?” John asked softly acting all meek.

“I’ll go and sort out the SUV sir,” Ianto’s clipped tones cut in. 

With which he turned crisply and walked away.  Jack watched him go then glared at his ex when he noticed the other man checking Ianto out.

John smirked and suddenly to Jack, the room felt very empty.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

John saw the word TORCHWOOD stencilled on the side of the SUV and grinned knowingly.  Jack ordered him to sit in the passenger seat knowing it had the least amount of tech visible thanks to Ianto.

He automatically took the driver’s seat so that he could keep an eye on his ex.  He then felt a twinge of jealousy when Ianto sat behind him and Tosh sat on his lap.

It made sense of course.  Of the four in the back Ianto was the biggest and Toshiko the smallest.

His technical genius was however the closest friend the archivist had, and as the Welshman’s last closest friend, it made Jack feel jealous.  The fact that Tosh concentrated on her PDA and didn’t squirm in Ianto’s lap helped to calm him.

As soon as they began to drive John launched into an outrageous story that, thankfully, Jack wasn’t in.  There were a few changes, a few more exaggerations but the immortal was very familiar with the tale.

It was well rehearsed so that his ex didn’t really have to concentrate of what he was saying.  The point wasn’t to tell the story it was to watch the reactions to it, read the audience.

Jack wished that his team weren’t so easy to read.  He cursed the Rift’s timing that it couldn’t have brought his ex-partner to them in a few weeks time, after he had healed the gulf between him and the team; regained their trust, Ianto’s trust.

Gwen of course was the easiest to read.  The sympathy came off her in waves, though not as strongly as when he’d left, she had hardened and that saddened Jack.

John however had already learnt that, if he was to divide and conquer, then she was the key.

_“What he never told you about his past?”_

_“No he hasn’t.”_

Simple question and answer told John that she was royally pissed with Jack.  She had co-ordinated the team at the bar and it probably wouldn’t be long before Gwen made her attraction to Jack obvious.

He knew John, he would flatter her, play the tragic past card and turn on the sex appeal.  Of course Gwen wasn’t that easy to convince, and John had the disadvantage of her knowing Jack.

Owen was not someone John would appeal to.  Cynicism ringed the medic like a high wall, which meant his being pissed with Jack only made John’s chances of getting him aboard less likely.

Tosh, John had probably already dismissed as not a danger.  He was used to technical genius’s of this era being the timid stereotypical geeks.  Despite the flirtatious banter and the gun, John would see her as a way to get the canisters and not a threat.  Completely wrong of course, but her sitting on Ianto’s lap did reinforce the impression of harmlessness.

After insuring his story held Jack’s boredom, Gwen’s sympathetic interest, Owen’s cynicism and Tosh’s complete lack of attention as she was working on her PDA, John turned his attention to Ianto.

Ianto’s question about what kind of partners they had been showed a personal interest in Jack.  Of course after that one question his face showed sympathy for the dying woman, then nothing but his blank professional mask.

In other words that he was another member of the team annoyed with the boss.  Jack really wasn’t feeling the love right now.

John probably hadn’t realised though that, while he’s been reading the rest of the team, quiet Ianto had been reading him.  The Welshman had complete control of his feeling before he finished preparing the SUV and John’s slight diversion into an anecdote about Jack got no reaction at all.

His ex then suddenly ramped up the sex appeal.  Jack could smell the sudden increase in pheromones and felt a shot of jealousy.

John was eyeing Ianto like a predator.  He switched his attention to Gwen every now and then to make sure he had hers, but his focus was now on the archivist.

Jack gripped the steering wheel tighter.  John had no right to look at Ianto that way.  Ianto was his.

Unlike the rest of the team who were getting aroused, Ianto showed no reaction at all.  In fact as soon as he got the Time Agents full attention he rolled his eyes and turned away bored.

Jack could feel John’s interest increase but no matter what he said he didn’t get Ianto’s attention back.  The immortal felt himself calm, he’d long ago become immune to the effects of his ex’s pheromones.

The Captain hadn’t realised that he’d increased his speed until he realised they were nearly there.  He pulled up far enough away from the Plass that he and John on foot would reach the Hub after the rest of the team had entered using the garage entrance.

“You out,” Jack said to his ex.  “Ianto take over,” he said and waited for the archivist and the technical genius to rearrange themselves and drive off.

“Alone at last,” John said seductively and Jack had to stop himself from rolling his eyes the way Ianto did.

“Come on,” he ordered and marched towards the Plass and the entrance to the Hub.

 

 


	15. Chapter Fourteen

As soon as the two ex-Time Agents were out of sight Ianto opened all the windows.  He ignored all protests until the air was cleared of the smell of John and Jack.

Silently Ianto counted down from twenty.  He didn’t reach twelve when Owen said.

“Well, Jack’s ex.”

“He might have been cute but I think Jack’s taste has definitely improved over the years,” Toshiko said smiling as she caught Ianto’s eyes.

Ianto turned his eyes rigidly towards the road and willed himself not to blush.  Seeing a similar look on Gwen’s face was a good cure for the reddening.

“Ladies focus that isn’t what I meant,” Owen said firmly.  “Look it isn’t as thought we didn’t know that Jack has a back catalogue with the same content and variety of people that you find in the average phonebook.

“Point is I don’t think our beloved leader has stopped thinking with his balls while he’s away.  It seems that we’re about to let one of his ex’s into our super secret base.”

“You don’t think Jack still has a thing for him?” Gwen asked.  Owen and Tosh exchanged looks before the medic answered.

“The only thing bigger than the testosterone fuelled sexual chemistry between those two was their egos but no, _get what you came for and get lost_ is a pretty clear indicator that that he wants Hart out of town.”

“What do you think Ianto?” Gwen asked

“Torchwood doesn’t have any record of a Time Agency.  The wrist strap indicated that he is probably from the same time period as Jack and, size issues aside, it probably has the same tech.

“If this Time Agency trained it’s agents in the same way we train spies then we can expect him to be weapons trained, I doubt the sword is just for show, and trained in unarmed combat too.

“He’s likely also been trained to blend in, be persuasive, an accomplished liar and a seducer.  We know he’s dangerous, he’s already killed a complete stranger,” Ianto concluded.

“That’s what I wanted a professional opinion.  Though seriously blend in?” Owen said disbelieving.

“I think it must be a time traveller thing.  The Doctor, though not human, is known to choose an outfit and generally stick to it even if it would only blend in during one time period; although I’d hate to take to visit the planet where his red patchwork coat ensemble would blend in.

“Jack and Captain Hart obviously did the same thing, Jack with his 1940’s RAF chic and Hart with Red Coat chic,” Ianto answered bringing the SUV to a stop outside the garage.

He decided to leave it parked outside as they were probably going to be using it when they hunt down these canisters of Hart’s. 

“Okay As Jack’s probably using the invisible lift we won’t have long really before they arrive.  Tosh, Owen secure as much of the Hub’s equipment as you can then get to work on finding those canisters.

“If he’s as dangerous and not on as friendly terms, as you two seem to think, then Jack won’t want him armed either.  I’ll use the scanner and Ianto could you...” Gwen began.

“Secure the weapons in the armoury when we have them,” Ianto finished professionally.

Gwen and Owen went ahead into the Hub, Tosh hung back a little with Ianto.

“Are you okay?” she asked quietly.

“I’m fine thank you Tosh,” Ianto replied and she knew it wasn’t the truth but that she would get nothing further from him.

Unasked, Ianto helped with securing the Hub.  He knew the security systems as well as Tosh did and knew a few security protocols that she didn’t.

He heard the invisible lift start and it became a cue for all of them to take their places.  Only Owen hung in the background where he was harder to spot if Hart decided to try something after all.

Ianto could hear John’s voice from up above them.

“...Interior design hasn’t got any better though.  What is this? Sewer chic?” and Jack chuckled.

There was something off though about that laugh and Ianto couldn’t tell if it was because Jack was playing his roll or hiding a deeper hurt.  He involuntarily took another step forward then, remembering himself, brought up the silver tray ready.

Jack stepped off the lift then quickly turned and brought up a hand to halt John.

“Weapons,” the immortal stated and John sighed.

John removed his guns handing them to Jack who placed them on the waiting tray.  Then he handed Ianto the sword which he held while still supporting the tray.

“And the rest,” Jack said holding out his hand.

“Oh you know me I’m a two weapon man,” John answered raising his eyebrows.  Jack gave him a look of disbelief.

“One Pistol strapped to each leg, laser knife beneath the left elbow, seventeen small explosive charges in the lining of his coat,” Gwen rattled off and with a sigh John began to remove these too.

“Slipped my mind,” John said not really apologising.

Jack felt another stab of jealousy as John eyed Ianto up while the Welshman passively received each weapon.  His archivist was wearing his professional mask and it took more than a few leers to break that.

“Owen why don’t you give John a physical while Tosh completes her scans,” Jack ordered.

“I don’t need to be prodded and poked, well not that way,” John said waggling his eyebrows at Jack.

“Autopsy’s occupied,” Owen called and John looked momentarily alarmed.

“Used medical then.  Don’t worry it’s just standard procedure,” Jack said with a grin.

Owen said nothing but the Time Agent grumbled as he followed the medic.  Gwen sent him a questioning look.

“John doesn’t like Doctors, he says knowing the body so intimately means it holds no mystic for them.  Why don’t you go with them and keep an eye on things,” Jack suggested.

Gwen nodded reluctantly and followed.  Ianto silently headed towards the armoury and Jack automatically followed.

“Let me make sure there are no surprises with these,” Jack said taking the first gun off of the tray and deactivating it safely.

They worked in silence with Ianto storing each weapon once Jack had finished.  The immortal kept shooting glances at the Welshman hoping to start a conversation.

Yet he couldn’t think of anything to say.  All the words he had were private, for Ianto’s ears only, and intimate, the Hub was not the place to say them.

As Jack handed Ianto the last weapon their fingers touched.  The Welshman didn’t move his hand away and the immortal felt emboldened to let his fingers slide towards the hand.

Ianto looked up at him.  Pain and confusion radiated though the eyes of an otherwise stony face.  How Jack wanted to take all those feelings away.

“Ianto...” he began.

“Jack,” Gwen’s call came from towards the medical bay and Ianto snatched his hand away.

“Jack,” she called again from outside the armoury door.

“Seeing as Gwen’s here Ianto why don’t you help Owen escort John to the conference room,” Jack said as the Welshman put the last weapon into place.

“There might be a slight problem with that,” Gwen said from the door.

 


	16. Chapter Fifteen

The three of them arrived at the little used medical bay to find John sprawled completely naked on a bed.  He grinned broadly as they entered, Owen behind them looked exasperated.

“Before you say anything I didn’t ask him to strip off he just did and now he won’t dress again,” Owen said.

Jack though hadn’t spared him a glance he just looked straight at his ex and tried not to let his eyes wander down over familiar territory.  He was terribly aware of Ianto’s presence beside him.

“What I have a perfectly toned body with nothing to be ashamed of.  There is nothing more natural than the naked form,” John said smirking as Gwen kept trying not to sneak glances.

“That maybe so but it’s distracting my staff from doing their work,” Jack said and inwardly winced.

“Really is it only your staff it’s distracting?” John asked sitting up and looking at the immortal with interest.

“If you wouldn’t mind getting dressed I’ll escort you to the conference room,” Ianto said before Jack could respond.

John’s eyes turned to the Welshman and looked him up and down then grinned.

“Oh Eye Candy I don’t think I’d need clothes to follow you anywhere,” John drawled.

Jack felt his gall rising.  His ex was making no attempt to hide how far south his interest was suddenly rising.

Ianto turned, catching his attention, before the immortal could speak.  The warning in the Welshman’s eyes told him just how close he’d come to giving himself away to his ex.

Jack felt a small stab of pride at how well the archivist read John.  He could see on the faces of Gwen and Owen that they only saw the intergalactic playboy slut, Ianto saw the cold calculating Time Agent beneath distraction who was learning their tells.

The Welshman was proving a challenge to John, as he once had to Jack.  The suits and professional mask hid far more of Ianto than the playboy slut and big damn hero acts did with the two Time Agents.

While Jack had been away Ianto had lost his invisibility.  There was genuine appreciation of the Welshman’s appearance in John’s eyes, before he doubted his ex would have even noticed the archivist.

There was a small war within Jack.  On the one hand he was glad for Ianto that he had regained enough of his confidence to be seen.  On the other he wished he’d been the one to help him gain it, and wished John wasn’t there to appreciate the change.

“With your permission sir perhaps I could take Captain Hart along the scenic route to the conference room, via the morgue maybe,” Ianto said calmly interrupting Jack’s turmoil.  Owen hissed at the thought of the cold and John’s eyes blazed excited as he recognised the challenge the Welshman presented.

“Maybe take in the cells as well.  Introduce him to Janet,” Jack said his eyes sparkling with new mischief, loving the familiarity of Ianto’s devious mind at work.

“Up close and personal sir?” Ianto asked innocently.

“You think he could take Janet?” Jack asked.

Ianto turned again to John who made sure that everything was on display.  Jack shifted his stance so that he could see the Welshman’s face.

His would be lover looked down and up his ex’s body with the same look of distain he usually reserved for people who trod muddy footprints onto his clean floors, or didn’t bother with his carefully placed coasters.

The look John was giving Ianto in return made Jack go cold inside.  He wondered if he looked like that when he looked at Ianto, aroused and predatory.

Another stab of jealousy, it was irrationally but he couldn’t help it.  He knew Ianto wasn’t the kind of man to go into casual sex, not even the kind specified in a specially arranged friendship, he wouldn’t give in to John’s charm.

The look they shared in the armoury told him there was a great deal Jack would have to do before Ianto accepted him back.  Every move John made seemed to increase that gulf.

Because Jack felt guilt too.  John was acting the same way Jack had when Ianto first joined, but without knowing about the Battle of Canary Wharf.

Jack had made allowances for grief, acknowledged there was probably some PDST so he never pressed, never helped him cope with survival, never got to know Ianto, find out anything about him until after the Welshman betrayed him to love that was already gone.

John didn’t know about Ianto’s background and was doing exactly what Jack was so grateful he hadn’t done.  He was turning on his charm and sexuality just to get a reaction, a spark of interest.

Ianto didn’t react though, despite the increase in pheromones.  He just turned calmly back to Jack and said “No.”

There was an extra coldness radiating from Ianto that only Jack could feel.  He knew the Welshman had seen the similarities in the acts and been hurt by them.

Behind John, Owen burst out laughing, distracting everyone from the unspoken exchange between the archivist and his boss.  The ex-Time Agent began to move sulkily off the bed.

“Fine I’ll get dressed, but eye candy,” he paused waiting for the Welshman to turn.  “If you ever want to strip search me...”

“I’ll make sure I have my tweezers and a magnifying glass,” Ianto answered frostily as Owen laughed again.

Jack felt another stab of pride at the way Ianto handled John so well.  Then he’d had practice with another dumb Time Agent who hadn’t seen what was on offer when it was served up naked on a bed below him.

Grumpily but quickly John dressed.  Ianto turned without waiting to see if he was being followed and set off down the corridor, for the second time that night Jack felt forsaken.

 


	17. Chapter Sixteen

As soon as John and Owen were out of view Gwen turned to him and asked.

“How come he didn’t do that when Owen and I asked him to?”

“He was trying to provoke a reaction.  I bet as soon as he began to strip off you stepped outside and it was only when you realised that he wasn’t going to get dressed again that you came to find me,” Jack replied.

“Yes,” she said with a hesitant frown.

“Well he got his reaction until Ianto called his bluff and humiliated him,” Jack concluded.

“So he didn’t really want to go to the conference room starkers?” Gwen asked confused.

“Hell no, I’d turn up naked if I had nothing to do and was bored enough, just to see who would leave and who would join me.

“He’s testing all of you to see what reactions he provokes.  He wants to know what sort of people he will be working with,” _how easy it would be to betray them._ “If you decided you didn’t mind having a piece of him he would have given it to you,” Jack said as casually as he could.

“And because Ianto showed no interest he decided to get dressed?” she asked.

“Exactly,” Jack replied thinking, _the fact that Ianto is a natural dom helped.  Of course neither of my Welsh employees would want me to tell Gwen that._

“By the way where is the conference room?  They didn’t head back to the main Hub and I noticed the green where it used to be,” Jack asked hoping to divert attention away from his ex and potential boyfriend.

“Oh we turned the old board room into a hothouse where we grow alien plants.  One of the lower levels was altered when we opened the rift, the result of some experiment down there.

“We had to get rid of everything except the null-radiation labs and the outer walls.  So Tosh and Ianto built us a new conference room with better equipment and security,” Gwen replied leading the way.

“Oh and your collection of alien dinner services is gone,” she added with a provoking smile.

She was teasing him and that was good.  It was the first friendly gesture she had made since he returned.

“I bet Ianto was devastated that we no longer had the correct service to invite the Tenorians to dinner,” Jack replied with a grin.

He knew it was the wrong thing to say when her face fell.  He doubted the Welshman had reacted that badly to the loss of the dinner services, Jack knew Ianto hated the fact that he had to clean them every few months.

“Will Captain Hart’s curiosity be satisfied or can we expect him to try and seduce Tosh?” Gwen asked coldly.

“He won’t provoke Tosh because he wants the canisters.  The rest of us might still be fair game though,” Jack replied.

“Even Ianto?” she asked.

There was an incredulity in her voice that Jack didn’t think was caused by the Welshman’s giving John the cold shoulder.  What was it about Gwen that made her so blind to what a sexy, sensual man Ianto was?

“Especially Ianto, he has a lot of armour that John will want to crack,” Jack said seriously hoping she would not notice his concern.

“And he will take the time to do it?  Surely the Radiation Cluster Bombs are of more concern?” she asked.

“If they are Radiation Cluster Bombs,” Jack said quietly then loudly, “At the moment we are waiting for Tosh’s results there isn’t much to do other than for him to get to know the team.

“Why wouldn’t the canisters contain what he said?” Gwen asked turning to him and Jack just shrugged.

“So he’s a compulsive liar why is he still in the building?” Gwen demanded not looking at him.

Jack didn’t think the possibility that the canisters didn’t contain Radiation Cluster Bombs should have provoked her to use the word compulsive.  Gwen may have been outside the medical bay but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t listening. 

He wondered what the hell John had said to her to make her conclude his ex was a compulsive liar, which was true, but how much of the truth had he also been telling that Gwen didn’t believe?  How much damage had he done to Jack’s fragile team?

“There’s the tiniest one percent chance he’s breaking the habit of a lifetime and telling the truth which means this city is in danger,” Jack said wanting to believe John despite knowing how untrustworthy he was she turned to face him again.

“What did he mean by Time Agent?” she asked as if only just remembering.  “You’ve never mentioned it.”

“That was in the past,” Jack said dismissively.  _Why did she have to latch onto that?  Why couldn’t she let the monster I was then remain buried?_

“Oh, okay here we go again,” she said with a grin with no joy in it.  “You know everything about me Jack.  Why do you keep shutting me out?  Talk to me” the grin stayed in place hiding the accusation, the demand for an answer.

Suddenly she wasn’t his police liaison she was Gwen Cooper.  The fiery Welshwoman who, like Ianto, had stalked him and who now challenged him, who made him more human.

“Here and now, that’s what’s important.  The work we do, the person I am now,” he said silently begging her not to push this, not to make him go over the past.

The man John Hart knew was not him.  He had been worse that John in some ways until he got a terrible wake up call.

He’d been Captain Jack Harkness now for over a century.  His halo had slipped more than once during the long wait, but he had tried to remain faithful to the man the Doctor had made him, the man Gwen knew and trusted.

“Then why did you desert us?” she demanded.  _Why did you desert me?_ she was asking her eyes pleading to know what she had done wrong.

“Where did you go?” she quietly asked the one question he wasn’t ready to answer, not completely.

He avoided looking into her eyes, pleading eyes he’d last seen before the master snuffed the life out of them.  He felt the rise of feelings in him her last words to him had provoked.

Jack knew he couldn’t remain silent.  She needed an answer, needed an explanation before he would get her trust and loyalty back.

She needed to know she was special, that she was important to him.  That he trusted her, that he valued her loyalty.

The full truth he wasn’t ready for so he looked away.  Searched his scattered thoughts for something to tell her, for some way to keep her at his side.

“I’ve died so many times, been dragged back to life, like being hauled over broken glass.  I saw the end of the world,” he began not sure if anything he said made sense.

“How?” she asked a little wonder creeping into her voice.

“It doesn’t matter now.  But after it was all over I knew I belonged here.  What kept me fighting was the thought of coming home to you,” Jack told her sincerely as the memories of her last words repeated themselves over and over so many times as he hung from chains in the Valiant.

They had kept him going, he had wanted to see her, to tell her how much she meant to him.  How important she was to changing both him and Torchwood they way he had wanted to for the Doctor.

He reached out to touch her, to take her hand.  To test if his words were enough to regain her friendship, to regain the bond they had shared.

Then his thumb brushed metal and stone.  He brought up the hand to check his sense of touch was telling the truth.

“What’s this?” he asked feeling his world spin slightly.

“That’s… erm, That’s and engagement ring that is,” she said giving him a look of mock surprise to see it there that she probably thought was cute.

“You’re getting married?” he demanded suddenly feeling vulnerable.

“Yes Rhys asked,” she replied snatching her hand back.  “While you were away.”

“Wow Gwen Cooper getting married,” he said with a laugh to make light of the hurt he was feeling, _had Ianto felt like this when he found out about the real Captain Jack Harkness?_

“Down on one knee?” he asked not really caring about the answer.

“Well he tried and then he had a twinge in his back and had to lie down on the settee.  That’s when he popped the question,” she said quickly as though embarrassed by the lack of romance now when at the time it had been adorable.

“And you said yes,” Jack asked clarifying.

“Well no one else will have me,” her eyes couldn’t quiet look at him but he knew.

Her eyes would have said the same thing as her last words during the year that never was.  They would have told Jack that if he wanted her to love, honour and obey him then she would.

But Jack couldn’t.  Even without the unexpected betrayal she didn’t even know she’d committed.  Even without knowing that it would hurt Rhys, who he knew she loved more truer than this infatuation for her immortal boss.

He’d been down that road with someone like Gwen.  Jack knew the unhappiness that it lead to, the pain when the fiery passion stopped being enough.

At least Ianto was honest with him.  His last words had offered the only hope he could promise Jack.  Hope from a brokenhearted man to the man who shattered him but he still cared for.

This…

Jack grinned knowing the woman before him was his friend who hadn’t done anything wrong, who hadn’t been brought to the point where there were no longer any consequences for her to face.  She had merely followed her heart without him there to obscure her reason.

“Good for you,” he said as he held her close and kissed her cheek.

It was not a kiss of congratulations, it was a farewell to a fantasy.  A goodbye to the ideal Gwen Cooper, who had kept him sane aboard the Valiant when he couldn’t face the undeserved comfort memories of Ianto would have provoked.

“We should get back to work,” Jack said pointing away and moving swiftly towards where he suspected the conference rooms now were.

“Good, work,” Gwen whispered behind him feeling that her chance to have Captain Jack Harkness had just slipped away.


	18. Chapter Seventeen

“He probably only said that because he isn’t,” John said to Owen cupping himself and interrupting the brooding silence that had surrounded them since they left the medical bay.  The medic snorted as the three of them neared the conference room.

“You mean he’s big,” John said in surprise and Owen smirked.

“Well...”

“That information is protected by Doctor/Patient confidentiality,” Ianto said from in front of them.

“I don’t think that size has ever really mattered to Ianto,” Owen said indicating a space with his hands that raised John’s eyebrows.

“Cleanliness on the other hand,” the medic added looking at the dirty, stained t-shirt John was wearing.

John looked down and seemed a little self conscious for the first time.  They continued the rest of the short journey in silence.

“If you’ll take a seat I’ll just make you a coffee, unless you prefer tea?” Ianto said indicating the conference table before going over to his mini coffee station.

“Coffee is fine,” John answered ignoring the seat and instead walked up behind Ianto.

“You know it’s a little unfair of you to judge me.  Just because I’ve had a rough couple of trips and no time to change,” John began smoothly.

“I actually scrub up quite well.  If you lead me to the showers I’ll show you,” John suggested making it obvious that hot water and soap were not on his mind.

“I’m here to make tea and coffee not sponge you down.  Besides I thought you were here for the, _Radiation Cluster Bombs_ ,” Ianto replied with only a hint of sarcasm.

“It will take your pretty little friend a while to find them I expect, why not put the time to good use?” John asked smoothly.

Ianto turned for the first time to give John an insulted look on Toshiko’s behalf, and turned back to his coffee machine.

“It aint going to take Tosh that long to find your bombs mate,” Owen said watching the whole display with amusement.

“Your coffee,” Ianto said holding it out to John who ignored it.

“You know with a wrist strap a Time Agent can go anywhere, any planet, any period in history or the future.  And I don’t have to go alone.

“I could show you wonders you have never dreamed of.  Exotic races that would make your mind boggle at their beauty.

“I could take you to feel the most sensual of pleasures in the whole of space and time, pleasure kings have paid fortunes for,” John said his voice low and inviting and Ianto turned to him.

“You know I used to work in a gay bar once.  At least when I was subjected to their cheesy chat up lines most had the decency to buy me a drink first,” Ianto said coldly and put the cup down away from John.

“Sit down please,” Ianto said his voice and face allowing no room for argument.

John smiled widely and obediently took a seat at the end nearest the door but opposite where the two Torchwood employees now stood.  He leaned back on his chair putting a leg up knowing it would earn a brief scowl.

“Hang on a minute, there is nothing in your personnel file about you working as a barman,” Owen said suddenly.

Ianto rolled his eyes then sent a glare in the medic’s direction as John said. “Oh Eye Candy.”

“Oh please,” Owen said as he realised the Time Agent was now palming himself, with one leg on the conference table.

“I bet you lie to Jack all the time just to get him hard,” John said watching for the Welshman to freeze, flinch or roll his eyes.

“Ianto’s never had to lie to me, for any reason,” Jack said causing his ex to jolt but not to stop him rubbing himself.

John’s eyes glittered with challenge as he looked at Jack.  Daring him to do something about his obvious hardness or react to the reason for it.

“Are you good?  Or do I have to send you to the bathroom to take care of yourself so that you don’t insult Tosh by being distracted after all the hard work she’s put in for you?” Jack snapped.

Ianto didn’t react at all and John’s eyes travelled from him to the slightly flushed looking Gwen who entered.  She quickly schooled her face but not before she frowned at the tent in John’s jeans.

“I’m good,” John replied smoothly and closed his eyes.

To Jack it seemed that his ex was taking longer than he remembered to control himself.  While both men loved sex they both knew how to use it and how to fake it.

It hurt Jack just a little that John’s reactions might even have a spark of genuine interest.  Ianto was not there for his ex to ogle, _only me_.

Tosh interrupted any other manoeuvring on John’s part to upset the team.  She wove her way around her colleagues and straight to the screen.

Jack went to the opposite side of the screen to where she stood so that he could see everyone.  She waited for her display to be brought up then began.

“Seven hours ago we logged a minor surge in Rift energy across three locations,” she said indication the three points on the map of Cardiff.

“Six of us, three locations that’s simple,” John said rising a little.  “Two people per canister,”

“Excuse me I give the orders,” Jack said firmly reminding everyone.

“Well give some big boy,” John said throwing his ex a challenging look.

“John’s right,” Gwen said then turned to Hart as asked with a smile.  “Sorry do you prefer John or Captain.”

“With eyes like yours you can call me Vera and I won’t complain,” John said seductively.  Jack checked his teams reactions and clocked Ianto rolling his eyes.

“Tosh and Owen take the North, Ianto and Jack go west.  Me and Vera’ll take the docks,” Gwen said throwing John another smile.

“Excuse me not to repeat myself...” Jack said looking between the two before Gwen interrupted with.

“Got a problem with this Jack?” She asked challengingly.  The look John was giving him slightly incredulous but not at Gwen’s taking control, at his prevaricating.

“Not at all,” Jack replied.

“Now given that the canisters are radioactive don’t open them eh?” John instructed provoking another eye roll from Ianto.

“Let’s go guys,” Gwen said clapping her hands together and they all headed for the door.

“Gwen I need a word,” Jack said and she turned back into the conference room.

“Oh can I watch this bit?” John asked eagerly.  “He’s going to give you all the do’s and don’ts.  I love it.”

“She’ll be with you in a second.” Jack said firmly pointing to the door.

John gave a slight smile and got up and left.  Jack’s eyes followed his ex out and saw him hovering just outside the glass doors.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jack demanded quietly crouching over the conference table.

“If I can get him talking, flirt a bit he might drop his guard.  I can find out what he’s really up to,” Gwen said.

“Okay clever,” Jack admitted.

“Thank you.”

“But dangerous.  Leave it to me,” he told her, she really had no idea how dangerous they both were.

“I lead the team while you were away Jack.  I can handle this.  He knows you too well, he’ll never tell you the truth,” she appealed to him.  Jack hated the fact that she was right.

He looked down the corridor to where John waited.  He knew John was unlikely to make a move until he had all three canisters but that didn’t stop him being dangerous.

Jack turned back to Gwen.  She was demanding the trust she deserved.  She was right, she had done well while he was away, it was just that John could be so beguiling.

“Three rules, one don’t believe anything he says.  Two always keep him in front of you and three under no circumstances let him kiss you.”

“As if I would,” Gwen replied offended at the idea that she would fall for someone she’d just met and didn’t trust.

“Has he got on to the no kissing rule yet?” John called from outside the board room.  “He only invented that because he wants me all to himself.”

Gwen shot Jack a look as he stared at the door.  Gwen got up and walked away from him.

“Keep in front,” she ordered to John and he preceded her back into the main Hub.  Jack hesitated hoping that this wasn’t a huge mistake.

 


	19. Chapter Eighteen

He followed them into back to the Hub and collected his coat from where he’d thrown it on the way to the medical bay.  The team were already in the SUV, Ianto in the driver’s seat, so he ended up with Gwen on his lap so that John could be in the passenger seat.

It was the only time he wished he’s gone for the model with more seats rather than heated leather seats and more leg room.

He watched as John casually placed a hand on Ianto’s thigh.  The Welshman griped the wrist of the offending hand using pressure points that made his ex wince with pain.

“You don’t want me to crash the SUV before you even have a chance to find the canisters do you?” Ianto asked looking John sternly in the eye.

John smiled and held his hands up in surrender.  Ianto nodded and started the engine.

“These bombs, do you intend to transport them back with you or should we bury them in the hazard archives?” Tosh asked.

“We need to do some scans to make sure they are okay to transport first but I do have somewhere safe to take them,” John replied and the two of them began to discuss what scans were required for the rest of the journey.

Ianto dropped Gwen and John off first followed by Tosh and Owen.  Jack got out the SUV to join the Welshman in the front but realised that he had nothing to say.

Jack found that he kept wanting Ianto to ask him questions about John, demand answers the way Gwen had, but that had never been the Welshman’s way.

They were still silent as they parked the car and Ianto led them to the lift and pushed the button for the right floor.  Jack fought the urge all the way up to turn around and touch his former lover.

He got out of the lift first and made his way to the right.  Ianto followed and held the door to the open plan office as he stepped though.

“Oh yeah loving that officey feel,” Jack began not wanting to bear the silence any more.  “I always get excited in these places, to me they’re exotic.”

“Office romance, photocopying your butt.  Well maybe not your butt.  Although while we’re here why don’t we photo...” Jack knew that speech was getting away from him.  He felt intensely nervous in Ianto’s hostile silence.  He was almost glad to be interrupted.

“The rift was activated at these co-ordinates approximately 200 feet above ground.  That means this floor or the roof,” Ianto said getting to his feet from where he’d been crouched as he inspected a desk.

The Welshman was using his professional voice, shutting out Jack’s attempt at banter.  He began to move away his whole posture screaming out how uncomfortable he was in his Captain’s presence.

“How are you Ianto?” Jack asked softly.  He wasn’t really sure what to say, but he knew from bad experience how right this question was to ask.

“All the better for having you back sir,” Ianto replied with false cheer that hurt Jack in a way that it really shouldn’t.

He’d wanted to be acknowledged by his team all evening, now he was being acknowledged as the boss by Ianto but nothing more, not in the way Jack so desperately wanted more.

Well he wasn’t going to accept that.  He didn’t come back to be just Ianto’s boss.  He had plans, he was going to stick to them, so why the hell was he suddenly so nervous.

This was Ianto, a man he knew cared for him, a man who knew him more intimately than any other in recent years and not rejected him.  A man he’d hurt deeply by leaving while he was still fragile.

“Can we maybe drop the ‘sir’ now?” ignoring his doubts and pressing on.  “I mean while I was away I was thinking maybe we could, you know then this is all done,” _god I sound like a virgin asking for his first dance._

“Dinner, a movie,” Jack stuttered determined to do this.  He’d face Daleks with less nerves that he now felt in the presence of this gentle man.

“Are you asking me out on a date?” Ianto asked looking him for the first time since his babble began.

Ianto looked nervous himself, unsure if he was hearing what Jack was trying to get out of his mouth and into a coherent sentence.

“Interested?” Jack asked no longer trusting his mouth with more words.

“Well as long as it’s not in an office,” Ianto said turning away casually.  “Some fetishes should be kept to yourself.”

Jack felt a little stunned.  Was Ianto trying to play it cool, or was he just as uncertain as he?  _Best not to push things._

“Looks like we’re going to have to go through every draw, bin and plant pot,” Jack said focusing on the easy business of finding John’s damn canister.

“Right, okay,” Ianto said trying to be business again.  “I’ll do this floor, don’t want you getting over excited and you take the roof.  You’re good on roofs,” Ianto said with false cheer again.  His whole stance told Jack he wasn’t quite ready for more alone time yet.

Jack headed to the door accepting his instructions as he didn’t want to pressure Ianto anymore.  He needed to give the Welshman time, and he needed a little himself.

“Jack,” Ianto suddenly called out and the immortal turned instantly.

“Why are we helping him?” the Welshman asked quietly as if unsure he wanted to know the answer.

“He’s a reminder of my past.  I want him gone,” Jack answered truthfully.  He looked into Ianto’s eyes and saw the acceptance of that answer relax him a little.

Jack felt more relaxed himself and turned to the door.  Then the sudden ambiguity of Ianto’s answer struck him and he turned back.

“By the way was that a yes?” Jack asked hoping he didn’t sound as insecure as he felt.

“Yes, yes,” Ianto replied not looking at him properly but the answer was enough.

He felt surprised and pleased and good as he opened the door and went to search for the second canister.

_I just asked Ianto Jones on a date and he said yes.  Now let’s get rid of John so I can start figuring out which is the best restaurant for a first date._


	20. Chapter Nineteen

Ianto Jones wasn’t really paying attention as he searched the office.  He knew he would notice anything out of place and his mind was in turmoil.

_I came back for you...  Dinner, a movie._

_What did Jack mean by that?  Surely I’ve never meant more to Jack than a good time?_

_I came back for you...  Dinner, a movie... By the way was that a yes._

Ianto’s head was spinning in disbelief.  Jack had just asked him out on a date.  Captain “shag anything if it’s gorgeous enough” Harkness had just asked him out on a date.

_What did that mean?_

_I came back for you...  Dinner, a movie._

_I wanted more and suddenly I’ve been given it without having to ask.  Without telling Jack that’s what I want.  Without being crowded or subjected to any of his lines, before he can realise that I don’t want what we had because I want more, the more I’m being given._

Ianto went over the whole evening since Jack shot the blowfish.  The only time Jack had come close, had touched him, was when they had been in the armoury storing John’s guns.

The brief touch of their hand’s, filled him with such desire and such confusion.  Ianto knew his eyes had conveyed the hurt of the past months because he saw care and apology in Jack’s eyes as he looked back.

Ianto wasn’t sure if he should consider the suggestion that he get his butt photocopied as a line or nerves.  Partly because he wasn’t sure Jack ever got nervous, and partly because he was sure that given the opportunity Jack would have loved a photocopy of his arse.

Yet that hadn’t felt like a line.  It had felt like Jack trying to be his normal harmlessly flirting self but getting it all wrong.  _Well he did say offices get him excited._

_You know now that he isn’t here I could photocopy my arse for him.  I could give it to him as a present on our first date._

_No!  No, what am I thinking of.  There will be no photocopying or photographing any part of my bare anatomy until at least the third date._

_Of course I’m not likely to actually get a date.  I know Jack was sincere, I know he intends to take me out but let’s face it we both work for Torchwood._

_Odds are that even if he used Tosh’s rift predictor programme to select the perfect night for a date, there’s still a fifty percent chance that an alien or alien object that is already here, or slipped away from us, would come back and interrupt._

_How many failed attempts at a date are we both going to wait for?  Will one of us get fed up and give up?  Is it going to be just the idea of a date we give up or the relationship itself?_

_I came back for you… By the way was that a yes._

_That didn’t sound like one of Jack’s whims.  It didn’t sound like he was sweetening me with a promise he knew the Rift would prevent him from fulfilling._

The months of healing Ianto’s broken heart had received were not enough to remind him that, to his knowledge, Jack has only strayed with one kiss and into no bed or convenient surface without the Welshman.

_I came back for you._

_Jack has to make the first move.  He has to organise our first date even if we don’t get to go on it.  I need to know he’s really sincere before I can even think about getting into a relationship with him, a proper relationship, as lovers._

With this new resolve the Welshman felt himself calm.  It had to be up to Jack because Ianto already knew exactly what he wanted but he couldn’t push.

He knew the man he loved well enough to know that a proper relationship was going to be gradual and cautious.  Ianto wasn’t sure he wanted to know how new, or not, this kind of relationship was for Jack, but he knew grief well enough to understand why an immortal would be wary.

_So all we have to do now is find Vera’s bloody canisters so that Jack can get rid of him and get down to the business of reintegrating himself with the team and organising my date._

Suddenly the lift chimed.  Ianto stood and turned, alert but he didn’t see anyone pass the door.

_It’s not Jack he always uses the stairs.  If he hadn’t wanted to get on my good side he would have made me walk up here._

Ianto got his gun out and cocked it.  His instinct told him whoever it was probably John and that wasn’t good.  Cautiously he edged out of the office and towards the lifts.

He could see it was the lift on the far side that was open.  Ianto’s eyes flicker around him but he didn’t see anyone as he edged closer.

He took a deep breath and moved to cover the open lift.  He is a little surprised to find it empty but that meant Ianto wasn’t surprised to feel the gun pointed at his head.

“Into the lift Eye Candy,” John said his voice all business.

Ianto immediately let his gun loosen in his grip and pulled his arm back so that John could take it.  He waited for a few beats after gun was taken before slowly turning around.

“Your friends are bleeding, dying and you barely have enough time to save them,” John said walking him backwards into the lift.

There was no seduction in him now.  All signs of interest, all his plays gone but then they hadn’t worked with Ianto, he knew Jack to well.

“Owen? Gwen?” Ianto asked as he activated his earpiece.

“What am I a child?  It’s a primitive bit of technology easily blocked you should be embarrassed,” John said slightly mocking before becoming all business again.

“And when you get to the bottom run, you look like a man who enjoys a challenge.  See if you can save them.  Come back up here, I’ll shoot on sight,” John gave Ianto’s forehead a last press with the gun and pushed the button for the ground floor and stepped back.

“Going down, doors closing,” the lift chimed.

“Going down, yes please,” John mimicked coldly as he stepped back.

Angrily Ianto suddenly lunged forward to block the doors and had the satisfaction of seeing John flinch.

“Why are you doing this?” Ianto demanded huskily.

John Hart may have been a reminder of his past that Jack wanted gone but there was still a spark between them.  The immortal may have wished that it was two weeks rather than five years, but that was because he had moved on, it wasn’t because their relationship had meant nothing, just that he wished it did.

Ianto knew that Jack knew that John was playing with them.  Whatever was in the canisters it wasn’t radiation cluster bombs or, if that was what they held, then they were destined for some open market and all three of them knew it.

Jack though had found redemption, which meant he couldn’t help but hope that his ex had found it too.  They might both know it was a scam and the immortal may have moved on but that didn’t mean the truth wasn’t going to hurt him.

“We’re a cosmic joke Eye Candy.  An accident of chemicals and evolution,” John said stepping closer once more.  The gun moved to stroke around his jaw in a way that was intimate, erotic and repulsive all at once.

“The jokes, the sex just cover up the fact that nothing means anything,” John raised the gun back to his head and Ianto’s eyes burned into him, a mix of pity and anger.

“And the only consolation is money,” John shouted as he pushed Ianto back into the lift with the gun. “So run Ianto Jones.”

“Going down, doors closing,” the lift said as John stepped backwards grinning at the Welshman as though he’d won.

Ianto banged the wall in frustration and willed the lift to go faster.  He wanted to go back up, to be there for Jack, but it was more than John’s threat that stopped him.

Jack was immortal, he couldn’t die and he knew the man he was going to face.  The others probably were in as much trouble as John’s threat suggested, and if anything happened to them Jack would never forgive himself.

Ianto had to warn him though.  He pulled out his phone and dialled Jack’s number.  When it wasn’t answered he knew John had already reached him.

He took a calming breath as he felt the lift slow.  Jack could handle John Hart, he had the rest of the team to look after.

As soon as the doors were wide enough he dashed to the SUV and headed to the warehouse where he dropped off Tosh and Owen.  Before he even released the hand break, he was already dialling Gwen.

 


	21. Chapter Twenty

As Jack opened the door to the roof his thoughts turned in a similar way to the Welshman below.

_Ianto said yes._

There was no ego in the joy he felt, just pure relief.  Knowing Ianto was going to be hard work but worth it meant everything to him.

Ianto had given himself to Jack far too easily last time.  He had never been worthy of the feelings he provoked in the young man, especially as the Welshman was the one member of the team who knew Jack best of all.

Jack was sure that they others all saw him as the great seducer of a vulnerable young man.  They thought that he’d been bored one night and decided to take the office eye-candy over his desk and kept on doing so for convenience.

The irony of course was that they only time they’d had sex on Jack’s desk it had been Ianto who was doing the taking.  Just as it had been Ianto who came to him, seduced him with the idea of a special friendship to disguise the fact that by the end they were really lovers.

Jack had no illusions that he hadn’t been chosen by Ianto as a comforter for any reason other than convenience and because he was easy.  The Welshman knew the Captain was not someone who refused an offer of sex.

In grief, Ianto seemed to form this belief that he was unattractive.  One of the most beautiful men Jack had ever seen, felt that the immortal had a warped sense of aesthetics because he liked the look of his archivist.

When Ianto first came to Jack he had been prepared for the Welshman to take whatever he needed.  He still had a little of his grief to heal and he owed it to the young man to be there for him.

He hadn’t been prepared instead for Ianto to give him everything.  Not just the warm pliant body with a passionate soul but understanding, an ear to listen, a gently voice to hear, calm in chaos and forgiveness when he needed it.

Jack had let the terms of their friendship, the ones Ianto had laid out, hide the fact that the ‘someone better’ Ianto was waiting for, he was already bedding.  The immortal should have known enough about grief by now to expect that, but he never felt that Ianto had any reason to care beyond friendship.

The betrayal over Rhys’ body told him how wrong he was.  Now he had compounded his mistakes by running off with the Doctor, sure for longer than he intended but that really wasn’t an excuse.

Jack had to be careful.  It might be all too easy to persuade Ianto to be his and then forget his resolve to be a good boyfriend.

This was different for him from other relationships and he wanted to get it right.  He didn’t want to turn around one day and realise he hadn’t seen Ianto for weeks and suddenly know that they had broken up without him even noticing.

That was Ianto’s way.  Not to scream and shout and rage against the world.  It was to quietly make things better, smooth and seamless until he was no longer needed and then just disappear.

_Ianto said yes._

He was going to date Ianto Jones.  He was going to prove to be worthy of all the passion Ianto had wasted on him so far.

The sudden reversal of role struck Jack.  He needed this.  He needed the understanding, the ear to listen, the gently voice to hear, the calm in chaos and the forgiveness.

He couldn’t choose anyone, it had to be Ianto.  He had to become accepted by the young man again.

Captain Jack Harkness, the man the Doctor accused of flirting with ‘hello’, and he wanted the most modest, quiet and unassuming Welshman he had ever had the pleasure of being smiled at by.

Spotting the canister roused Jack from his thoughts about Ianto.  He bent over to pick it up not caring what the contents was or why John wanted it, he only cared that it meant his ex would go.

“Rear of the year 5094, still looking good,” John’s voice drawled causing Jack to straighten and turn sharply.

His ex stalked closer until they were a foot apart and his mobile rang.  Jack reached inside his coat for it.

“Cute boy ringing to warn you about me,” John said taking the phone from Jack’s fingers and throwing it away.  He held his hand out and demanded “Canister.”

“If you’ve harmed them in any way…”

“You know they’re pretty but stupid.  You used to have better taste,” John interrupted.

“It doesn’t look like that from here,” Jack retorted.  _I chose Ianto that is the ultimate in excellent taste._

“Just give it here,” John said waggling his hand again slightly bored by the exchange.

“Radiation Cluster Bombs?  Really?” Jack said with mock disbelief.

He had known this was coming, the story wasn’t even convincing.  Dying woman’s last wish wasn’t his style at all.  Yet Jack had hoped he had changed and being proven right only hurt.

John sighed, “Let’s not get caught up in the detail.”

“A little embarrassing that you needed help to find them,” Jack teased to hide how hurt he felt from John who didn’t even notice.

“A little humiliating that you fell for the scam.  Your dolly birds did all my leg work,” John replied.

“Is that what you wanted?” Jack asked unable to keep the disappointment from his voice.

“What I want is for you to come to your senses, join me Jack.  Back in the old routine, we’d be emperors.

“How can you stay tied to one planet when there’s thousands of worlds sparkling with wonder?  We should be up there among the stars claiming them for our own, just like before,” John said his voice full of seductive awe.

“I can’t,” Jack replied. 

He meant it.  It wasn’t just the responsibility he had told the Doctor about.  Jack remembered the old routine vividly, and a more wasted and meaningless existence he had yet to experience.

The Doctor had shown him a better path, one that was hard and so long and full of atonement but it led to Ianto Jones.  It led to something meaningful and fulfilling.

“Why not?” John demanded angrily.  “What the hell is there to keep you here?  Come on, the glitter of the galaxy, the mischief we would make.”

 “You know you never really mastered that temptation spiel,” Jack said unimpressed.

“It’s not a spiel it’s a fact,” John snapped angrily.

“Move on,” Jack retorted.  “Here I am in a new life and you’re still churning out the same old tunes and sorry but they don’t play as well now you’re looking a little older.  And what are they wrinkles around your eyes?” Jack sniped waving his hand casually at John’s face.

“Laugh lines.”

“A hell of a good joke.”

“It’s you I’m laughing at.  Canister,” John ordered thrusting out his hand again.

“Whoops,” Jack replied throwing the canister over his shoulder.  He couldn’t help laughing at his Ex’s face.

“Whoops,” John replied and shoved him backwards over the low wall.

Jack wasn’t sure why that surprised him and he let out a cry at the impact of John’s hands.

As he fell he thought of Ianto and hoped the others were unharmed.  He knew that if John let the Welshman go then he would look after them.

Ianto’s face came into his mind.  It was the hallucination he had seen the day the Master threatened the life of Martha Jones and New York City, then didn’t destroy either.

It was a beautiful face one that that held love and sorrow.  One he hoped to see again, one he hoped he could stop feeling sorrow and begin to feel love.

_The universe awaits Jack... it waits for you to return to life._

The words echoed in his head as he felt the impact with the bench and the familiar darkness took him.


	22. Chapter Twenty-one

Gwen was not answering any of his calls and neither were Tosh or Owen.  That and Jack not answering his, suggested that John had probably gotten rid of the other’s phones.  Why let him keep his?

_Perhaps he forgot.  Ianto was just a mild distraction after all.  Perhaps he isn’t after the canisters, what if he’s after Jack._

_Jack may wish their relationship was only two weeks but the five years argument suggested that John still cares about Jack.  There was still that chemistry between them that most ex’s have._

Ianto shut out such thoughts and focused on the road.  He tried to keep his feelings under control.  Worrying was not going to help anyone right now good driving was.

The problem was that while both his instinct and logic were telling him to get to Tosh and Owen first, part of him felt that, as Gwen was alone, he should be heading towards the docks.

Ianto’s sensible side pointed out that if Gwen was injured, as John said, then she would need medical attention.  Owen was far more capable of that than he.

A small part of him though couldn’t help point out that as Tosh was his friend; he was just going to find her first.  The small rivalry between him and Gwen for Jack’s favour was nothing to do with why he was hesitating in getting to her.

None of this internal debate was doing anything to settle his nerves.  Gwen’s inability to answer the phone was setting him more on edge.

He sped across town, grateful that this early in the morning there were few people about.  The roads were clear but he was on the alert, as that was when they were the most dangerous.

Ianto pulled up outside the warehouse where he’s dropped Tosh and Owen.  He could see in the headlights that the door was padlocked shut.

He went to grab a flashlight, spare gun and crowbar from the car and easily dealt with the lock.  He opened the door and drew the weapon.

“Tosh! Owen!” he called out.

“Ianto,” Tosh called.

“Tosh.”

“We’re over here,” Tosh answered.

Suddenly she came into view.  He couldn’t help feeling relieved that she was okay.

“What happened?” Ianto asked.

“Where’s Gwen?” Tosh asked and he felt a stab of guilt.  “Have you heard from Gwen?”

“No,” Ianto replied lowering his gun and torch.  He followed her as she led him to Owen.

Ianto saw that the medic was injured but conscious.  He could already hear Tosh heading back to the SUV for more medical supplies.

“Is it okay for you to be lifted?” Ianto asked.

“I’ll be fine once I get some painkillers.  We have to find Gwen.  How the hell did he get a gun?” Owen asked distracting himself as Ianto lifted him up and supported him as they went back to the SUV.

“It was Gwen’s gun,” Ianto answered after a minute.

“What?” Owen answered after several steps.

“The gun he has it was Gwen’s.”

“How do you know?” Owen asked.

“I got a close look at it before John sent me after you,” Ianto replied.

“He didn’t hurt you did he?” Tosh asked as they caught up with her, and she helped get Owen into the front seat and handed him a fresh gun.

“No he just threatened me.  He wanted me out of the way while he handled Jack.  I think he still wants Jack,” Ianto replied quietly before moving around to the driver’s seat.

Tosh scrambled into the back after insuring that Owen was belted in with the medical kit.  As soon as she was in her seat belt Ianto began to drive.

He was completely focused on the road.  Neither Tosh nor Owen said anything they didn’t want to distract the Welshman.

They arrived at the docks in record speed.  Owen had attended to his gunshot wound on the way and got out of the car by himself.  They followed Tosh to where the canister had landed.

“I don’t think John is going to get Jack mate,” Owen said quietly.

“But I just left him, he’s going to feel abandoned,” Ianto argued.

“Hart told you we were injured right, that’s why you left yes?” Owen asked.

“Yes.”

“Well Jack’s the only one of us with the ability to come back from the dead.  He can handle Hart in a way that scum can’t even conceive.  The rest of us though need help from our friends.  You did the right thing and Jack knows it,” Owen said quietly.

Ianto nodded then looked around him at the containers.

“If she’s in one of these we’ll never find her there’s too many,” Ianto said.

“Just keep looking,” Tosh told him.

Owen opened a container with a cry.  “God I need more painkillers.”

Ianto got out his mobile and said, “I’ll try her phone again.”

A ringing noise sounded and Ianto listened for the direction it was coming from.  “Over here,” he called and ran to the ringtone.

Owen followed and picked up the mobile.  “She must have dropped it.”

“Gwen... Gwen,” Ianto called out.

“Unless it’s another of Captain John’s tricks,” Tosh replied putting away her gun and light before pulling out her scanner.

“What are you doing?” Ianto asked as the reason he had been allowed to keep his phone dawned on him.

“If Gwen used the phone here I can use the network to triangulate the location where she answered her last call.  Got it,” Tosh replied and headed away from where they found the phone.

“This is where she made the call.  Open every container door,” Tosh ordered and the two men immediately went to open different containers.

Tosh took the nearest one and quickly shone her torch inside.

“She’s in here,” Toshiko called before checking for anything hidden and rushing in.

“Gwen it’s alright we’re here with you,” the technical genius said turning her friend’s head.

“What happened.  What’s he done to her?” Tosh asked Owen when Gwen didn’t respond.

“She’s still breathing.  No discernable injuries,” Owen replied and reached for his medical bag.

“Tosh let’s get this thing started.  Ianto take a swab,” he ordered handing the swab to the Welshman before shining the light in Gwen’s eyes.

“Pupil’s dilated, she’d still conscious,” Owen said calmly.  “Stay with us darling,” he added as Ianto gently swabbed her mouth.

Ianto transferred the swab to a slide held by Tosh.  She pushed it into the laptop’s scanner.  The results came back in seconds and she turned it to Owen.

“He’s poisoned her,” Toshiko pronounced.

“Anti Toxin kit now,” Owen shouted at Ianto who immediately was on his feet and heading back to the SUV.

“Gwen hold on,” he heard as he left the container behind.

Blessed with an excellent sense of direction he was swiftly back at the SUV and pulled out the kit he always kept there for emergencies.  They had sniggered when he suggested having one but that was before their first encounter with a poisonous alien.

He bolted back with the kit, praying that Gwen was still with them.  Rivalry for Jack aside, Ianto had no wish ever to see her harmed.

He gave Owen the kit and stood to shine his torch to give the medic more light.  He watched silently hoping they were not too late.

_Please Gwen, stay with us.  Torchwood needs you, Jack needs you.  Fight Gwen don’t let John win._

 

 


	23. Chapter Twenty-two

Jack inhaled sharply.  He opened his eyes to an upside down world and pain in his back.  As he realised he was splayed across a bench, he cursed whoever it was that thought it was a good idea to let people sit down next to tall buildings.

With an effort he straightened his back, stretched it, and he felt this vertebrae slotting into place.  Cautiously he wiggled his toes then got up from the bench.

As he stood he realised that his wrist strap and the SUV were gone.

_Ianto._

John had said that Ianto was the one ringing to warn him.  Did that mean he was the one who took the SUV or was he dying in the offices beside him?

The screech of tyres as the SUV halted answered that question.  The relief made Jack feel nauseous but he ran towards his team anyway.

“Is everyone alright?” Jack asked looking over them all.

“I’ve been shot, Gwen was poisoned and Tosh is lucky not to have a broken nose.  I think your ex must fancy Ianto, he was only threatened and told to round us up,” Owen grouched as Jack climbed in.

Ianto moved the SUV forward before he had finished belting up.  The Welshman looked uncomfortable with Owen’s comments about him so Jack ignored them.

“Do you and Gwen need to go to the hospital or are you able to return with us to the Hub to confront John?” Jack asked.

“We will need some attention later but for now we’re good?” Owen answered after a glance at Gwen.

“What makes you think John’s at the Hub?” Gwen asked.

“He took my wrist strap.  Our instruments would have registered him leaving, like a distortion in rift activity.  There wasn’t any, so that means the only reason for taking it is because he wants something at the Hub,” Jack answered.

“He’s right,” Tosh confirmed with a series of beeps.  “No rift traces where we collected you and someone has tried to access Hub security.  I added a few extra programs while you were away.  I e-mailed you the details but I guess you haven’t had time to check”

Jack had noticed the details when he breached the Hub earlier but he hadn’t bother to add them to his wrist strap.  He was more eager to see Ianto and the others.

“So how do we deal with him?” Gwen asked.

“He underestimated us, let’s not underestimate him.  Tosh take control of the security systems at the Hub.  Make sure he isn’t adding anything and don’t let him in until we’re almost there.

“I want to know what it is he’s after but I doubt it’s good.  We can get in using one of the emergency entrances, sneak up on him and confront him when his guard’s down.

“If he has a weapon in his hand, use extreme caution, he’s deadly,” Jack replied.

“Maybe you should keep back.  He doesn’t know about your party piece, it’ll give him one hell of a shock,” Owen suggested feeling vindictive.

Jack chuckled, yes that might unnerve his Ex into giving them the answers they wanted.  He looked at Ianto but he was the only one not giving his opinion, he was just focused solely on the road.

Ianto parked the SUV and they entered through the tourist office.  Instead of going to the cogwheel door though they headed to the side where there was an emergency door.

Toshiko silently activated, her PDA linked to the CCTV showed that John was in autopsy examining the Blowfish.  The team exchanged looks and went silently though the door.

“Now…” John said as they reached the edges of the bay.  He wasn’t looking around him he was focused on the tray where the opened canisters lay.

Stealthily they took up positions around the two staircases down to the Autopsy bay.  John was bending down and in unison the team cocked their guns.

The Time Agent turned to see all the Torchwood team except Jack aiming at him.

“Okay,” he said slowly as though surprised to see them.  He deactivated the glowing pyramid and turned fully to face them.

“Pretty and resilient, is that even fair?” he asked the air.

“Maybe you didn’t realise, you can beat, shoot, threaten and even poison us and we’ll keep coming back, stronger every time,” Gwen said darkly.

“Well I think you ought to know your boss is splayed out on the….” Jack took that as his cue to enter and his Ex’s face was just a picture.

“Pavement,” John finished a little fearfully.

“Now that’s impressive.  Seriously you can earn a fortune in the Vegas Galaxies with an act like that,” John said with a nervous chuckle that Jack shared.  Owen had been right, John Hart tone showed how scared he’d suddenly become. 

“Go on how’s it work?”

Jack leaned forward on the railings above autopsy and took a breath through his teeth before answering, “I can’t die.”

“No but really.”

“No but really.  You can’t kill me.  No matter how many times you try, I can’t die, ever.”

Jack moved and Gwen stepped back to let him pass, then Ianto did the same.  Neither let their gun or eyes stray from John.

“Hey but what does it cost you?”  Every time you have to drag yourself back, how does it feel?  All that pain and trauma?” John asked nervously looking Jack up and down.

“Plus you’re reborn into this godforsaken mess.  I pity you,” John babbled the way he always did then unnerved.

“These people,” Jack said indicating his team.  “This planet, all the beauty you could never see,” Jack hissed.  “That’s what I come back for.”

“Well goody on you,” John replied sarcastically.

“What’s in the canisters?” Gwen asked.

“Come clean time Captain,” Owen added.

“Yeah alright.  That woman I told you about had herself an Arcadian Diamond.  It’s the rarest gem in the Damascene Cluster.  Just when I got my hands on her, she only generates her own personal rift storm,” John said tossing and catching the pyramid.

“God I hate technological geniuses,” he added handing the pyramid over to Jack.

“You said this was a dying woman’s request,” Toshiko accused.

“Yeah she was dying.  I shot her.  Thought my luck had changed when I found it ended up here,” John said turning to Jack.  The looking at the team.

“So I’m thinking 50-50?  Even split, good deal,” then he looked at Ianto.  “Unless anyone fancies an orgy.”

Jack stepped in front of John’s eye line.  He searched him and removed the gun he had taken from Gwen.

The Captain then shoved John around him towards Ianto.  The Welshman caught him and manhandled him up the stairs.

John tried to lean into Ianto but the Welshman shoved him in front roughly and they headed to Jack’s office.  The immortal scooped up the three fragments of a triangle and followed.

 

 


	24. Chapter Twenty-three

It all happened so quickly.  One second they were all smugly enjoying the fact that John had been outsmarted by the woman he murdered, fifteen seconds later Gwen was handcuffed to his Ex and asking about where the nearest rift hotspot was so that she could sacrifice herself.

Later Jack would smirk at how John hadn’t anticipated Gwen’s reaction.  Frown at his cheek for still proposition Ianto.  Right now though he wanted to be with his team but a hand on his arm refrained him.

Owen gave him a beckoning look that asked to be trusted.  All Jack’s instincts wanted to be with Ianto and Gwen but if Owen had an idea then he that took priority.

The medic went to the fridge and took out their blood samples.  By the time he gave Jack the third one the immortal realised what Owen’s idea was.

He poured the blood into a test tube while Owen prepared the centrifuge.  The minute it whirred for was one of the longest in Jack’s life.

Owen stopped the centrifuge and grabbed a syringe and gave them both to Jack.

“This better work,” the immortal said slightly sceptically.

“Trust me I’m an improviser,” the medic replied.

They headed to the garage where Jack knew Ianto had impounded the sports car the blowfish stole.  He went ahead, the engine was running and the garage door was open by the time the injured Owen got in.

He ordered the medic to call the police and warn them to keep clear of their car.  Jack was glad that Gwen had prevented him from sitting with Ianto the last time they went to this car park; it meant he remembered the route and a few faster detours that the others didn’t know.

He sped all the way and slammed on the brakes when they reached the others. 

“30 seconds,” he heard Ianto dimly call as he put the syringe between his teeth and jumped out the car running towards John.

“What’s he doing?” his ex asked a second before Jack barrelled into him.

He stabbed the syringe into John’s heart and pushed the plunger.

“Get off me,” John cried.

Jack pulled out the syringe and threw it away as his stood.  His eyes remained intently fixed upon the disk.

“Owen it’s not working,” he replied as it continued to beep.

“Fifteen seconds.”

“What are you doing?” Gwen demanded.

“Trying to confuse the disc,” Owen replied.

“Why hasn’t it worked?” Jack demanded.

“I don’t know.”

“Twelve seconds.”

“Jack do something,” Tosh called.

“I’ve got to go Jack,” Gwen said trying to lift John.  Her eyes said she hated this but the city’s safety was more important.

Jack bent down to help her lift John up.  Ianto was calling down from five and the disc suddenly dropped away.  Jack grabbed it and threw it into the rift opening.

“Go,” Jack yelled but they were already moving except Gwen and John.  “Run,” he added grabbing the ex-PC and running her backwards.

The explosion hit and suddenly they were flying forward.  The world around him darkened as they hit the concrete and rolled.

He sprang to his feet at the end of his roll and was surprised by the fact that the new morning had become night.

“What the hell,” Jack said looking down at his wrist.  He lamented instantly the fact that it was his watch there because he no longer had his wrist strap.

“Jack what’s going on?  Why has it gone dark?” Gwen asked.

“The rift’s reverted to the moment he came through.  Everything’s jumped back to the beginning of the night,” Jack explained.  He could feel it, the sensation of travelling to the past.

“Like you were never here,” Gwen said angrily.

“Now we’ve got to avoid ourselves, great,” Jack said grumpily as the rest of the team approached them.

“It’s a temporal displacement.  It makes your tongue tingle doesn’t it?  It’s lovely,” John said looking at Gwen who looked to Owen.

“What was in the syringe?” she asked.

“Torchwood DNA,” Owen answered clutching at his injured side and breathing heavily.

“What?”

“DNA samples from the five of us fused and injected into his heart, temporarily corrupted his DNA code, confused the disc,” the medic answered.

“You mean there’s a bit of all of you inside me?  Sweet goddesses that’s all I need,” John complained.

“Thank you Owen,” Gwen said instead.

“You’re welcome.”

“I want you gone,” Jack said firmly to John.

“Well we’ve got to work out a way to get these off first,” Gwen said angrily holding up one of her handcuffed hand.

“Actually,” John said and put his hand in his mouth.  There was a few choking noises but when the hand emerged it was holding a key.

“Old Artesian trick, keep it in the lining of the throat.  It has its uses,” John explained giving the key a waggle.

“You had that all along,” Gwen said her voice low and dangerous.

“You were my passport to survival.  No hard feelings, well not in that sense,” John said as Gwen’s eyes watched him intensely.

The cuffs unlocked and Gwen stepped back.  Her arm went back and she swung at him. John fell backwards while Jack chuckled, the Welshwoman stepped back further to join the rest of the team.

“Remind me never to get on your bad side,” Ianto said quietly as Owen reached out to touch her reassuringly.

That left Jack standing alone by his Ex.  He cleared his throat and held out his hand.  John sighed then handed over the immortal’s Vortex Manipulator.

Jack examined it before saying, “Definitely bigger.”

“If you need a new team member,” John offered.

“No,” Jack answered immediately.  He knew it was a bad idea without having to hear the others protests as well.

“Really I could…”

“No.”

“But…

“No,” Jack answered more forcefully and John sighed in surprise.  “Go now and you can harness the residual energy.”

“Listen…” John tried again.

“Goodbye,” Jack said gently.

“Okay,” John nodded.

Impulsively John closed the gap between them.  He clutched at Jack’s face and kissed him.  Jack let him but didn’t react like he had before.

The immortal stood there slightly stunned as they parted.  John patted Jack on the cheek and moved into position.

Jack looked towards his team seeking Ianto’s face.  It was neutral as he expected, not quite looking and the immortal hoped John hadn’t just ruined the fragile promise of a date with the Welshman.

“Oh by the way,” John called out.  Jack turned to him and could see the glow of the rift began to build.  “I found Gray.”

Jack froze.  He didn’t even fully register when John turned and departed.

His whole world for an instant became fear, panic and loss.  He remembered the sensation of fingers slipping his grasp.  The name though meant nothing, he couldn’t remember who Gray was, that would come later.

“Who’s Gray?” Gwen asked breaking the hold that name had over him.

Jack was still too stunned by his reaction to answer immediately.  He took a deep breath and replied.

“It’s nothing,” then after another calming breath added.  “Let’s get back to work.”

He turned and stalked towards the SUV.  He didn’t care if they were following but he knew they were, they were his team again.

As he reached the SUV he turned back to them.  He looked at Owen who was still clutching his side a bit and Gwen who looked normal.

“Gwen take the sports car and drive yourself and Owen to the Hospital and get checked out.  Ianto find us all a hotel for the night, preferably one with a spar and relaxation facilities.  If we have to avoid ourselves we might as well do it in luxury.

“When you and Owen are finished at the hospital Gwen come to the Hotel,” Jack ordered.

“Can’t I just go home to Rhys?” she asked.

“Have you had any contact with him tonight?” Jack asked.

“Yes he called me while John and I were at the docks.  I told him it would be an all nighter,” Gwen answered disappointed.  Jack frowned at her lack of professionalism but before he could comment Toshiko said.

“That call saved your life, it was how we were able to find you.  If you go to him now you will create a temporal paradox, as he won’t need to make the call and therefore won’t save your life so that you can be there.”

Gwen looked confused but accepted that the phone call was essential so she couldn’t go home, at least not until after Rhys made the call.

“Ianto when you have the name of our Hotel, send Gwen and Owen the details.  Everyone can take the morning off, I don’t expect to see any of you at the Hub until after lunch,” Jack ordered.

Jack gave Gwen the keys to the sports car.  The SUV’s keys were in the vehicle.  Both cars left the roof several minutes before a couple of guys started an argument and the rift spike John used to arrive, flared up.


	25. Chapter Twenty-four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the beginning of this chapter is a section from Company of a Friend (Ch 29) in which Jack and Ianto discuss the terms their relationship for those wanting a reminder. I put it there when I originally published this story so I have decided to keep it in.

 

> _“You said, ‘There are two reasons that most people come to a hotel room and I don’t mind doing either with you.’  Did you mean it?”_
> 
> _“Yes,” Jack said without hesitation._
> 
> _“So if I’ve had a bad day and don’t want to be alone I can come to your quarters and just curl up beside you and go to sleep?” Ianto asked one of his fingers tracing an unseen pattern on Jack’s chest._
> 
> _“You can come and sleep beside me if you’re not having a bad day too,” Jack replied and winced inwardly at how needy he sounded.  Ianto though merely relaxed a little more and snuggled up closer._
> 
> _“Ianto, does that question mean that if you went home early, for whatever reason and I’d had a bad day and didn’t want to be alone, that you wouldn’t mind if I went to your house so that...”_
> 
> _“No I wouldn’t mind,” Ianto replied with a trace of contentment in his voice._
> 
> _“What if the reason you went home is because we argued and you’re in a bad mood with me?” Jack asked slightly panicked._
> 
> _“Then you have to keep your t-shirt and boxers on and we’re not going to talk to each other until the morning,” Ianto answered firmly._
> 
> _“But what if one of us just wants to lie in bed and the other wants sex?” Jack pressed._
> 
> _Ianto chuckled and shifted his position so that his chest now rested on Jack’s allowing them to face each other._
> 
> _“We both know the best sex is mutual.  There are words, looks and touches that signal interest, intent that we both know how to read._
> 
> _“If those intentions are returned you know to pursue.  If they are not you accept that and hope that next time you will have better luck,” Ianto answered as though it was obvious but without being patronising._
> 
> _“What if one of just really wants to be alone?” Jack asked quietly._
> 
> _“When you want to be alone you don’t go to bed you go to a roof.  I have a place where I can go to be alone that isn’t my house,” Ianto replied looking away.  Jack nodded knowing that Ianto had a bed somewhere in the archives._
> 
> _“Ianto this is alright isn’t it.  Friends don’t usually sleep together do they?  I know our friendship is special because of all the sex but even with that kind of friendship there isn’t normally just sleep is there?” Jack asked uncertain._
> 
> _“Our special friendship is unique to us Jack because we are not normal, we’re Torchwood.  We’re not just outside the government and beyond the police we are outside the social norm.”_
> 
> \- **Company of a Friend Part 29**

 

 

**Chapter Twenty-four**

 

Jack had no idea where Ianto had gotten swimming trunks at this time of night, but Ianto was always a small miracle worker.  The Hotel for example had all the spa facilities Jack had requested and included a swimming pool.

A swimming pool which currently contained Ianto Jones alone.  Jack watched him, hidden from view, doing lengths.

The Welshman had given the three of them their keys and booked additional rooms for Owen and Gwen which had keys waiting for them to collect.  Then he’s disappeared from Jack’s view until the immortal tracked him down by the pool.

He hoped that Tosh was getting the luxury pampering she deserved.  Part of him had known that Ianto wouldn’t want it, not right now but wanted to rest of the team to enjoy.

_When I buy a house I’m definitely going to have a swimming pool.  Then I can watch Ianto swimming lengths without the trunks and get to see that wonderful body dripping with water._

A violent splash stopped Jack’s thoughts before they could take a turn he wasn’t ready for.  He needed Ianto to be his friend again before he could indulge in such fantasies.

The splash was Toshiko jumping in the pool near Ianto.  They were too far away for Jack to hear them but suddenly she splashed the Welshman.

They pair erupted into laughter and began to splash each other and play games.  These were the two most serious and reserved members of his team larking about in a swimming pool.

_It’s because there’s no one about to see them.  It’s a pity because they both look so beautiful like this, happy and carefree._

Jack felt no jealous at Tosh getting Ianto to laugh and smile.  She was his protector from immortal predators, the one who looked after him, a mutual bond formed in a basement of a cannibal’s house.

The sight of them being young lifted his heart as nothing else could.  It eased the memory of them being tortured at the hands of the Master.

As they began to get ready to leave the pool, Jack slipped away.  He already felt like an intruder but he hadn’t been able to help himself.

He headed to the roof of the hotel.  He remembered Ianto’s teasing earlier that night that he was good on roofs and it made Jack smile as he also remembered the promised date.

He looked out over Cardiff.  Third time since he had returned and all three times were different, not just in terms of view but his outlook.

First he contemplated having lost Ianto to a mysterious someone while away, then Tosh set straight that his Archivist was single.  The second was good and bad.  It began with the thrill of having Ianto say yes and ended with his Ex pushing him over the edge.

Now he had the contentment of a future date and the delight in seeing Ianto and Tosh have friendly fun.  He was home and he was safe.

Yet as he lingered in the cold dark, memories came back unbidden.  His thoughts turned and began to dwell on the year of hell he hoped he’d left behind.

Jack couldn’t stand them.  They were haunting him over and over again.  So much blood and death and horror he wanted to erase everything.

He didn’t notice that he’d left the roof.  Didn’t realised where his feet were taking him until he was standing outside a hotel bedroom, Ianto’s room.

Jack hesitated.  He couldn’t think but knew this was a bad idea.  He should go to the room with the key he had been given, not contemplate this.

_There’s no harm in just going and looking.  No harm in reassuring myself that Ianto is alive and well._

There was no light from under the door so Jack figured the Welshman was asleep.  He could be quiet, Ianto would never know he was here.

Before he could change his mind Jack used his wrist strap to unlock the door.  Stealthily he went inside, he could see Ianto curled up on the bed and moved to it just to see his face.

No sooner was he looking at that beautiful face then the eyes opened.  There was no trace of sleep in them and Jack stepped back in shock.

He opened his mouth to say something but no words came out.  There were no excuses, Jack knew he was wrong to come here, knew he had just destroyed all hope of a relationship with Ianto.

The Welshman though just looked at him.  Stared at him with those knowing eyes, searching Jack’s face for answers he couldn’t give.

There are some agreements you aren’t meant to make.  Some promises you shouldn’t call upon, some promises you should never be obliged to fulfil.

That night Ianto Jones remembered a vague promise made in another hotel bedroom.  He looked into Jack Harkness’ eyes and knew he had to fulfil it.

The Welshman turned over, let his back face Jack but at the same time he moved the covers, gave the immortal a silent invitation to join him.

With surprising speed for someone not about to have sex Jack stripped down to his underwear.  He got into the bed and slipped an arm beneath Ianto so that he could hold him close.

The warmth of Ianto’s body made him tingle as though he had been out in the snow and just come in for a warm hug.  Jack’s left hand moved to place itself over the Welshman’s heart so that he could feel him breathing.

Ianto smelt faintly of chlorine and hotel shampoo but his natural scent was there and Jack breathed in deeply.

Ianto Jones was alive and in his arms.  Safe and untouched by malevolent Time Lords.  Angry with him but still comforting.

It was all so overwhelming.

Before he realised it, he was sobbing uncontrollably.  He felt Ianto want to move, want to turn to give him comfort but Jack wouldn’t let him.

He didn’t wasn’t his distress to gain him sympathy.  He just wanted to hold Ianto, feel him alive within his arms.

When Jack’s sobs began to calm he realised he could hear singing.  It was low and quiet and in Welsh.

He could feel Ianto’s hand stroking gently what skin he could reach.  Offering what comfort and calm he felt Jack would allow.

As he listened to the lullaby he felt the world getting heavier.  He felt his ordeal drifting away with the song.

For the first time in over a year Captain Jack Harkness fell asleep.  Ianto waited until he felt the rhythm of the immortal’s breathing change before stopping the song.

Jack’s arms still clutched him too tightly to turn, as though he was afraid to let go.  There was nothing else he could do for the man he loved but wasn’t ready for, so Ianto Jones joined him in sleep.

 


	26. Chapter Twenty-five

When Ianto Jones woke he was alone.  He was facing towards where Jack had been and the immortal’s scent was still heavy on the pillow.

He knew it was probably for the best.  There would only have been awkwardness this morning despite nothing sexual happening.

Yet Ianto couldn’t help feel disappointed. 

_Jack must think I’m so easy.  I promised myself I wouldn’t just rush back to him.  I promised myself I would wait for him to prove his word._

Ianto had only just been drifting off to sleep when Jack entered his room.  It could have been no one else.

Part of Ianto had wanted to shout at him.  To demand to know what the hell he thought he was doing.  To ask if Jack thought he was as easy as he now thought himself today.

Ianto though had looked up into the immortal’s eyes and realised that Jack hadn’t expected him to be awake.  There was fear in his eyes, and hurt, and the Welshman knew that sex was the last thing on the other’s mind.

His words spoken so long ago came back to haunt him.  The conversation in another hotel room in which, as friends, they discussed late night needs for the company.

Despite his own hurt he couldn’t reject Jack outright.  Even if there had been no promise of a date, he wouldn’t have had the heart to tell him to get lost.  So he turned over and let Jack join him.

Ianto hadn’t expected the tears.  Being held close, the hand over his heart, the inhaling of his scent masked by chlorine yes, the sobbing tears had been a shock.

He’d just wanted to turn around.  It didn’t matter that he was still pissed at Jack for leaving, he couldn’t leave someone he cared about alone, uncomforted.

Jack though wouldn’t let him.  It didn’t feel like a rejection, only a terrible respect for his feelings.  An acknowledgement that the immortal had done Ianto wrong, even if something far worse had happened to the Captain in the mean time.

Singing the lullaby was the only thing he could think of.  He knew Jack loved the sound of his voice and with a song he didn’t need to think up inadequate words.

Ianto half expected to be woken by nightmares but there hadn’t been any.  It was as thought Jack was thoroughly exhausted and at last finding peace.

He itched to know.  Ianto liked to know everything and, despite knowing that it was probably impossible with Jack, he still wanted to know everything.

Yet he wasn’t going to ask.  He knew himself that trauma was something you had to be ready to share.  He couldn’t demand or violently force Jack to relive something that was obviously painful.

_I’m probably never going to know.  Can I live with a relationship where my partner keeps terrible secrets?_

_That was such a dumb question._

_I live with terrible secrets every day, my own, Torchwood’s, Jack’s.  I keep them and protect them because I must, even those I wish to share have to remain silent._

_I hate seeing him hurt but as long as he doesn’t decide to have a steamy relationship with Gwen or anyone else, he can keep his secrets.  I will look after him and care for him because that is probably the only thing I can do for him._

_God he hasn’t even had that chance to organise a date and I’m already thinking about the long term.  I really am pathetic._

The downward turn of Ianto’s thoughts was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Who is it?” Ianto called after sitting up with a groan.

“Room service,” was the reply.

Ianto automatically reached over to the bedside draw and removed his gun.  He made sure the safety was off and slid it under the sheets.

“Come in,” he called and straightened so that he could be ready for anything.

It was almost a shock to discover that it really was room service.

“Your breakfast Mr. Jones compliments of Captain Harkness,” the waiter informed him as he put a breakfast tray over the startled Welshman’s legs.

There was a second man behind him delivering what was definitely a suit bag and a few smaller bags.  His own suit from last night, he could see, was still hanging up when the wardrobe was opened and the second suit placed inside.

Ianto glanced over to the clock on the TV.  It said 10.00 am he couldn’t believe how late he’d slept despite yesterday being an unusually long day.

“Thank you,” Ianto said still stunned.

“You’re welcome sir.” The waiter replied before both men discretely left.

His bafflement was interrupted by the growl his stomach made in protest of the fact that it could smell bacon.  Ianto smiled that Jack remembered what he liked for breakfast and tucked in.

Afterwards he examined the suit and carrier bags.  One contained underwear and a new shirt and tie with a few other accessories.  The second contained his favourite toiletries with toothbrush and toothpaste.

The suit wasn’t the most expensive one you could find.  Indeed it was exactly like his other suit except a different colour, probably selected because Jack knew it would fit.

Ianto wasn’t quite sure what to make of this gesture.  Was he being wooed, or was this an apology for coming to his room last night and sleeping with him?

They were questions, like so many others that only Jack could answer.  He grabbed the bag of toiletries and headed for the shower.

Less than an hour later he had checked out of the hotel.  The sports car wasn’t in the car park so either Owen or Gwen hadn’t brought it back or Jack had delivered it to the owner.

That was likely considering the SUV was waiting, plus he had found the keys beside his bed when he was doing a final check to see that he had everything. He headed to the Hub.

When he arrived at the Hub he found that the body of the Blowfish was gone.  He went up to his coffee station to make Jack a coffee as a thank you.

The Captain met him outside his office.  His smile was welcoming but his eyes were nervous as though unsure of Ianto.

Ianto brushed a hand down his tie and smiled a thank you at Jack.  It was as though the wattage of the immortal’s smile suddenly increased from candlelight to nuclear powered.

There were no words needed.  They both understood last night was between them, too private for the Hub’s walls.

“I thought I said you didn’t have to come in until after lunch,” Jack said his face betraying how glad he was to see the Welshman.

“I left quite a few things undone last night including...” Ianto said waving at the autopsy area.

“I took care of it.  Thought it best gotten over and done with before he became too fragrant,” Jack replied his words holding no admonishment.

“Thank you,” Ianto replied and Jack smiled.

“I should probably...” Ianto continued.

“Would you like to go out for lunch?” Jack interrupted.  “Not straight away but in a few hours.  Seeing as the others won’t be in for a while.  There’s a nice place in the bay we could go to.”

Jack was babbling.  Ianto wondered what had happened while he was away to make him suddenly such a nervous person.

Before Ianto had a chance to say yes the cogwheel door opened and Gwen bounded in.  She was beaming in a way that told the Archivist that she hadn’t stayed at the Hotel; she had snuck home and spent a good night with Rhys.

“I knew I’d find you here,” she said as she walked over to them. “I’ve been thinking that it would be a great idea to have a team lunch, how about that?

“Celebrate your return properly.  I know just the place to go, Owen and Tosh have said yes what do you say?” she asked looking at Jack.

Jack opened his mouth but nothing came out.  Ianto could see his dilemma.  He wanted the private lunch for two he’d just offered, but he also wanted a welcome home lunch with the team.

Ianto suddenly realised he also had a dilemma.  He wanted lunch with just Jack but knew the Captain needed to have a meal with his team.  _How can I tell Jack I think we should eat as a team without him feeling rejected by me?_

Jack looked at him.  Ianto gave him a shy smile and an understanding nod.  The immortal looked relieved and disappointed at the same time.

“Team lunch sound’s great and Torchwood will pay.  Where are we going?” Jack asked.

“That will be a surprise.  Owen and Tosh will meet us outside at half twelve,” Gwen told them and went to her work station.

“I’ll be in the archives if you need me,” Ianto informed him and made his way to the depths feeling surprisingly wonderful.

 


	27. Chapter Twenty-six

Owen Harper wasn’t entirely sure about this meal idea of Gwen’s.  He was not really into the whole team bonding thing, but a decent meal on Torchwood with his friends he could do.

He got the impression though that this was going to be a disaster as soon as their destination came into view.  Gwen was happily driving the SUV unaware that Jack, Ianto and Toshiko had all tensed up.

It was an interesting reaction especially considering that he knew the restaurant of the Lost Dragon Hotel was Tosh’s favourite.  He also knew she used to go there with Ianto of their friendly dinners so the reaction was unexpected to say the least.

Both Jack and Tosh looked to Ianto who didn’t look at either of them.

“It’s a bit expensive for lunch,” Tosh said as Gwen pulled up.

“Nonsense it’s a celebration and they have a special offer on today,” Gwen replied oblivious to the discomfort in her friend’s voice.

“Gwen’s right I’m sure the budget will stretch to one good meal,” Ianto said reassuringly, and both Jack and Tosh relaxed.

As soon as they approached one of the waiters came towards them with a huge smile, one that widened when he saw Jack, or was it Ianto.  Either way they hurried to get them to a table big enough for the five of them.

Two of the waiters pulled out chairs for the ladies at least one space apart.  Toshiko allowed herself to be seated and Ianto sat next to her so that the place for Gwen was in the middle of the three remaining seats.

Gwen however pointedly ignored the offered seat.  Instead she sat on Ianto’s other side with a mild glare at the waiter offering her a chair.  Jack took that one instead with a grin leaving Owen between him and Tosh.

As the waiters handed out the menus they only asked Owen and Gwen what they wanted to drink.  All of them studied the choices in silence and the medic’s eyes couldn’t believe the prices or the variety.

Owen made his selection then carefully watched the others make theirs.  Gwen perused the menu for the longest which surprised him a little as this had been her idea.

Toshiko was definitely known to the waiting staff.  She barely finished letting them know what starter she wanted and the waiter completed the rest with a smile.

Realising that the technical genius ordered a starter made Owen scour the menu again so he missed what Gwen ordered.  He didn’t think that the Torchwood budget was going to stretch to anything beyond a main but Jack didn’t object.

The waiter went to the immortal next and made some recommendations which Jack took.  The Captain then leaned closer and whispered something which Owen couldn’t hear but made the waiter smile and nod.

This waiter definitely had the hots for Ianto because he leaned slightly closer to him when taking the order.  The Welshman of course remained oblivious to it and the intense gaze Jack was giving him.

Ordering himself felt like an anti-climax and the waiter left politely.  There was a few minutes of tense awkward silence during which Gwen was too busy admiring the décor to notice.

Ianto made a motion to Toshiko and suddenly she began telling Jack about the new boardroom and how that came about.  Gwen swiftly took over the conversation and some of the tension eased.

Owen noticed the Welshman tried to play down his part.  Especially the incident when the architect Gwen hired turned out to be a fanatic from a cult looking for an artefact and Ianto had thwarted her.

Jack spread his attention evenly amongst the team but Owen noticed that whenever the conversation moved away from him he would be looking at Ianto.  The Welshman too returned his looks and sometimes it was as though the rest of them were invisible.

Desert arrived without them ordering anything, crepes cooked at the table with hot cherries and chocolate sauce.  If Owen hadn’t watched Jack whispering to the waiter earlier, the smile on Ianto’s face would have made it obvious who the culprit was.

_I came back for you._

Before Owen had shot Jack, those words directed at Ianto would have filled him with jealousy.  Not that he’s ever fancied either man but he knew they would have.

Now he was more concerned.

 _Did I just witness a romantic gesture from Captain Jack Harkness?_ Owen couldn’t be sure, they’d never been openly flirtations or close since the Cyberwoman incident.

He’d only known that they were in a relationship because he’d witness a kiss and a smile while hidden in the shadows.  He had belittled the incident later and received a bullet hole as punishment.

The smile he’d witnessed then was very similar to the one that flashed across Ianto’s face just now.  It was more than enough evidence for the medic to know that the archivist was still infatuated with Jack.

What was a surprise though was the smile that Jack was suddenly wearing in response.  It was the sort of grin men usually wore after a night of good sex.

_No that can’t be it.  Ianto won’t have been stupid enough to sleep with Jack last night, would he?  Not after all the pain he caused._

When Jack’s grin suddenly disappeared Owen realised that he wasn’t the only one watching the exchange.  Toshiko was schooling her face after sending the Torchwood leader a glare.

Absurdly Owen now felt a flare of jealousy.  He knew he had no right to feel jealous and Toshiko had every right to be protective, every right to worry about Ianto.

Owen knew they had almost lost Ianto after Jack left.  The Welshman never showed any indication that he was suicidal but his sense of self preservation seemed to disappear.

_Jack had better not mess with him this time.  He’d better not get bored and decide to leave again or Ianto may not recover._

When Jack left before, Ianto seemed mostly to be his normal, professional self but he was dead inside.  The person who took care of them had lost the person taking care of him.

He would have withdrawn completely, faded away, if it hadn’t been for Tosh.  She was the only one he let in and, given the circumstances, no one could really blame Ianto for shutting Gwen and Owen out.

Of course Tosh would never confront Ianto about his relationship with Jack.  Never talk sense or make sure his head was screwed on correctly.

She didn’t want to push him away.  She wanted to be the one person Ianto knew wouldn’t judge him.  _Just as Tosh knows Ianto would never judge her for her relationship choices._

_That means it’s up to me.  I’m the one who’s going to have to make sure Ianto knows what he’s doing._

Suddenly the cherry and chocolate sauce pancakes didn’t seem as appetising as they had been before.

 

 

 

 

 


	28. Chapter Twenty-seven

“So did you have sex with him last night?” Owen asked.

That was the sort of question that immediately got Jack’s attention.  He doubted that the medic or Ianto had noticed him, so he stilled to listen.

“I didn’t even speak to Jack last night after I gave him his key and told him what facilities the hotel had,” Ianto answered abruptly.

It was true Ianto hadn’t spoken to him.  He’d just allowed Jack to share his bed in sex free silence.

“But you’re thinking about it?” Owen pushed.

“What I choose to do and who I choose to do it with are none of your business,” Ianto replied.

“As you’re doctor I think it is my business,” Owen replied.

“How?” Ianto asked coldly.

“I have to make sure the mental welfare of the team is adequate.  None of us want a repeat of what happened in your sex room,” Owen answered soothingly.

 _Sex room?  Does he mean our Playroom.  How does he know about our Playroom?  What happened there?_ Jack wondered in shock and shame.

This was the third uncomfortable reminder today of how he had used Ianto before he left, that included waking up beside the Welshman this morning.

 _Of all the places Gwen could have chosen to have a team lunch it had to be the Lost Dragon Hotel_.  Sure it was Toshiko’s favourite restaurant that’s how it became Jack and Ianto’s neutral ground, a place they could talk or have sex without Torchwood, in a place that belonged to neither of them

Ianto’s eyes suddenly softened and he smiled slightly.

“I appreciate your concern Owen, even if it remains none of your business.  I’m not about to just jump into bed with Jack like he was never away.

“I’m not the man he left behind.  If Diane reappeared and said she’d come back for you what would you do?” Ianto suddenly asked.  Owen stood there dumfounded with his mouth open.

“Those sort of ‘what if’ questions aren’t really fair to ask.  Whatever your head decides now if it actually happens it’s the heart that often gets the deciding vote,” Ianto said gently.

“And with you?” Owen asked sharply.

“The ballot hasn’t been counted yet but whatever choices I have are mine to decide alone,” Ianto replied firmly and moved away.

It was the signal for Jack to do some moving himself.  He wanted to know what Owen was talking about regarding the room he had set aside for him and Ianto to have sexual fun in.

It wasn’t far from the main Hub.  It was in the old lodging house set aside for the drivers of the Torchwood trains. MHe had first thought to use it as a bedroom for himself, then decided he’s rather have a play room full of any sexual toy you could think of.  Ianto was the only person he had shared it with though.

The sight he was greeted with was a shock.  The covers of the bed were burnt, the expensive cameras he had used to film them were smashed and the screen slashed.  It was as though someone had been through it like a cat in a hurricane.  Some of the broken toys were irreplaceable and unused.

He moved around examining the floor until he got to his side of the bed.  There, on its side, was a small velvet lined box that he had given Ianto as a present for New Year, after Jack discovered he was the only member of the team who hadn’t had a Christmas present because the Welshman never thought to organise himself one.

The three jewelled dog collars it once contained were scattered on the floor.  One was for when Jack wanted to be submissive, one for Ianto to be submissive and the only one they had used was for Ianto to be wild.

The sight of them abandoned in the ruin hurt.  It emphasised what a thoughtless person he had been before.

The sound of glass being trodden on came from behind him.  He scooped up the collars and shoved them in his pocket.

“I didn’t realise how angry he was with me,” Jack said straightening but not looking around at whoever entered.

“Ianto didn’t do this Gwen did,” Owen answered.

“What?” Jack demanded looking at the medic in shock.

“Your personal alert was not exclusive to your login ID and in no way subtle.  I think Ianto came here to say goodbye, at least that’s the only reason I can think of for him not enjoying your home movies,” Owen explained critically.

“You saw?” Jack asked stunned.

“Yeah.  You were bedding Torchwood’s most shaggable member.”

“Owen,” Jack growled.

“What he was on full Technicolor display for all of us to see.  I mean very nice,” the Londoner said appreciatively.

“Owen.”

“From what I could tell he probably has a good singing voice too.”

“Owen,” Jack shouted angrily.

“What?  When did you start to care about your Willy Warmer?  You just forgave us and bogged off without a care for the fact that thing were still raw with us,” Owen retorted and Jack recoiled but recovered quickly.

“When did you become his caring friend?  Yesterday you were encouraging Gwen to try out the Harkness Goodness,” Jack snapped angrily.

“When it was almost too late,” Owen replied quietly.

“He didn’t…” Jack’s throat tightened and he couldn’t say it.

“Not physically no.  He was like he was after Lisa died and he almost quit.  Not over the destruction of this room or having us see your home movie, Tosh looked after him.

“Gwen tried to apologise.  He wasn’t thinking straight and he took what she said the wrong way and handed in his notice,” Owen explained carefully.

“What did she say?” Jack demanded.

“It doesn’t matter,” Owen replied brushing the question off.

“Owen?” Jack demanded crowding in closer.

“Jack if he genuinely still thought she meant what he thought she meant at the time, he would have quit.  She didn’t and they were able to sort things out.

“Tell me Jack can you honestly say you think Ianto was over Lisa when you started shagging?  That he was over the PDST of Canary Wharf?” Owen asked and the Captain remained silent knowing that it was true.

“You did help him, were a great support but you were the only one.  By leaving you ripped that support away and Ianto had to figure out how to cope alone.”

“Is it time for my lecture now about staying away from him?” Jack asked darkly.

“No,” Owen replied surprising the immortal.  “I have already been told categorically that it is none of my business.  That Ianto is big enough and ugly enough to make his own mistakes.

“I just noticed that you had seen us talking, realised that you had come here.  I thought you deserved to know that it was Gwen and not Ianto that wrecked your little porn studio.”

“You gave Ianto a lecture,” Jack replied frowning.  He was unsure if he was feeling left out or jealous.

“Jack you can be a complete bastard and an insensitive sod.  I’m sure you had your reasons for leaving, but the way you did it was thoughtless.

“You have however made it quite obvious since you got back that you care about the tea boy.  In what way, is not my concern, but he isn’t thick skinned like you and me.  He has a hard shell but with the right instrument those can be penetrated.  I’m sure than beneath he has a lovely soft centre.

“Don’t suck him dry or you will have Tosh after you, immortal or not.” Owen said with an edge of sarcasm and was gone.

Jack pulled out the three dog collars and looked from them to the destruction of the room.  It suddenly seemed very symbolic of what he had done to his relationship with Ianto, of his thoughtlessness.

Sub/Dom games and sexy films they weren’t something you did with a friend, they were something you did with a lover you trusted intimately.  Ianto’s agreeing should have told him that this was more than just friends having sex.

What did that say of him?  He was the one who asked Ianto to be filmed.  He was the one to have that beauty captured for all time, he’d wanted more with Ianto too.

Resolving again to get what they had back, he turned and left the room.  He knew it would be a long time before he ever got to use it again and he didn’t care.

 


	29. Chapter Twenty-eight

Jack Harkness woke up with Ianto Jones’ warm body beside him and felt guilty.  After his talk with Owen in the playroom he had vowed to go that night without sleep and not use Ianto’s promise.  It took a pitifully short period of time before he broken that vow.

The day after the team lunch at the Lost Dragon Hotel had been chaos.  Aliens and angry Welsh people to deal with and retcon had left him feeling like he had his skin shaved off with a grater.

He hadn’t even noticed after he sent the team home that he had left with Ianto.  That he was following the Welshman until he found him waiting at the door to his new flat.

Silently Ianto had ordered enough take away for Jack too, tidied up the house as if the immortal wasn’t there, ate and went to bed.  Without comment the Welshman allowed himself to spooned by the Immortal and fell asleep.

Until he realised where he was, who he was with and why he shouldn’t be with them, Jack had felt better.  Sleep and Ianto’s presence combining to be a soothing balm for his metaphorical skin.

There positions had changed during the night.  He was no longer curled around the Welshman’s back.  Instead Ianto was facing him, curled over him.

He loved sleeping with Ianto this way.  It made him feel protected and safe.  Ridiculous for an immortal, the leader of Torchwood, wanting to feel secure but it wasn’t mortality that troubled him.

Jack could tell that Ianto would soon wake.  With great reluctance, he kissed the Welshman on the forehead and slid out from beneath him

He resisted the desire to slide his hand up the young man’s back as he tucked the covers around him.  He hadn’t earned the right to do that.

Just as he hadn’t earned the right to share Ianto’s bed.  That was a gift of grace he had been granted, a gift of love.

With haste Jack dressed and stole away like a thief in the pre-dawn light.  He returned to the Hub and, looking around, it felt cold and empty.  He had lived here for a few years but it wasn’t really a good home.

He remembered the last time he had felt like this.  It was early in his relationship with Ianto.  An alien device was affecting the Welshman’s psychic senses, making him depressed when alone, at the time they thought it was grief.

It led to what was probably one of the only proper days of normal friendship they had had.  They’d one out, had lunch and visited the cinema.

That evening though, Ianto had already promised Tosh that he would take her out to dinner at the Lost Dragon Hotel.  Jack had come back to the Hub and it felt like this, empty and alone.

Not wanting to have another night by himself had led him to booking into the Hotel and inviting Ianto up.  They had come to the agreement that night that he had been abusing now.

That had only been their third night together.

Perhaps if he had been a normal twenty-first century guy he would have known that wasn’t right.  There was something about Ianto Jones that always blindsided Jack.

Not just in the beginning.  Not just when his grief for Rose’s death prevented him from hiring Ianto until the Welshman reawakened him with his warm body, and eyes that knew too much pain for one so young.

Not just when he became the model of efficiency.  When he reorganised everything to make Torchwood run smoother and faded into the shadows so that none of them recognised, or were ready to prevent, the betrayal out of love and trauma until it was too late.

Their special friendship blinded Jack too.  He was so caught up in opening up a wonderful, beautiful man with tenderness, understanding and wisdom beyond his years and a wild side that made the immortal beg for more.

All that passion selfishly for him.  Jack had unintentionally isolated Ianto.  Not just from going out and meeting someone else, but from the team.

They had spent months now getting to know the Welshman properly.  Undoing the damage he had caused and they had all become very fond of Ianto, all of them had become protective.

They liked their friend and they all feared that Jack would destroy that.  Not by isolating him again but by hurting Ianto.

_I’m not the man he left behind._

Ianto’s words echoed in his mind.  He was right, Jack had seen it as soon as he looked at him.  He saw a happier man, one who knew his place in the universe, until he returned.

Jack wasn’t the same man either.  Despite the hurt the Doctor’s words caused, knowing them had brought a sense of peace.

A year of pain had made him seek comfort, a home with the people he had left behind.  He needed his team, needed their friendship and respect to prove to himself that he wasn’t all wrong.

Before his thoughts could return to the fact that, despite all his good intentions, he was still using Ianto, the door alarm sounded.

Panic surged through him knowing there was only one person it could be at this time in the morning.  He had no romantic gesture, no prepared explanation for last night but he couldn’t make himself move into his office to hide.

Ianto Jones entered looking immaculate and adorable.  The eyes that looked Jack over were gentle but he couldn’t bring himself to look at them.

He couldn’t move as the Welshman silently went to his coffee station and made coffee for the pair of them.

“Good morning Jack,” Ianto said as he handed over the coffee.

“Morning Ianto,” Jack replied loving the brush of the Welshman’s fingers against his own.

“I have almost finished my report on the activities and updates you need to know about since you’ve been away.  I’m sorry it wasn’t ready yesterday but it’s become quite long,” Ianto said and Jack felt a pang of disappointment that everything was all business.

“Not a problem I’ll be waiting in my office whenever you’re ready to deliver it,” Jack answered.

As Ianto moved away Jack suddenly felt something brush his arse.  He was so startled that all he could do was turn back and blink for a good minute.

At the end of the minute Ianto turned back to him and smiled.  He continued a few steps then bent down to pick something up in a way that made Jack’s jaw drop with interest.

Then he was gone leaving Jack feeling dazed.  Ianto had never been forward like that before but Jack loved it.

It wasn’t until he reached his office that he realised the Hub no longer felt cold and lonely.

 

 


	30. Chapter Twenty-nine

Ianto Jones knew there was something very wrong with Captain Jack Harkness.  The others didn’t see it.  With them he flirted, played the dashing hero and he became that because that was what they wanted.

Mind you Jack didn’t come to their beds in the middle of the night and sob himself to sleep one night and be trouble by nightmares the next.  They didn’t listen to him call out the names of the team, the Doctor and others with such anguish and grief.

Jack’s nightmares they had been of something terrible happening to the Torchwood team he was certain.  Ianto knew the Doctor travelled in time, he wondered if Jack had witnessed some terrible future event where they all died horribly.

Perhaps that was why he was back, to prevent their deaths from happening.

That didn’t ring quite true though.  While he was certain Jack would want to prevent anything from happening to them, both he and the Doctor were time travellers, they knew all about temporal paradoxes, knew how catastrophic they could be.

Last night Ianto had touched, spoken and eventually sang to Jack until his terrors calmed and he drifted back to a more peaceful sleep.  He hadn’t woken and the Welshman hoped he didn’t remember them either.

Once Jack was calm, Ianto had just stayed curled up beside him, concern and exhaustion making him forget that they were no longer lovers.

Waking up alone Ianto had felt disappointed.  Just as the previous night, when Jack stayed away, he had been disappointed.

He had had to live with being alone since Jack left.  Suddenly having his company, his uncertain company, made Ianto realise how much he missed the immortal.

Ianto couldn’t help wondering what had made Jack stay away the previous night.  He wasn’t concerned anymore that the immortal was using their agreement because it was heartbreakingly obvious that he needed to.

Suddenly he remembered the conversation he had had with Owen after lunch at the Lost Dragon Hotel.  Knowing the medic, he wouldn’t have stopped with Ianto, he would have spoken to Jack too.

Tosh and Gwen had also been angry, had they also told Jack to stay away from him or something.  That was endearing of them but Ianto didn’t want Jack to stay away.

Ianto knew that Jack and Tosh had both felt awkward about eating at the Lost Dragon Hotel.  They had both been concerned for him but he wanted Jack to bond with the team and desert had been such a wonderful gesture.

The truth was Ianto hadn’t minded going at all.  In fact he loved the reminder of his time at the Lost Dragon Hotel with Jack.

It was where they had come up with their agreement.  Where Ianto first realised he was in love with Jack.

In the hotel bedroom that was their neutral territory he had given himself a choice and a deadline.  By April Fool’s Day he either had to be satisfied with their friendship and want no more, decide to stop before it hurt to much or decide to pursue it and give the choice to Jack.

Ianto never got the chance to decide.  Jack left before then.  Now Jack was back and was offering more himself.

Going to the Hotel again reminded Ianto of all the intimate moments they shared.  Not the sex, fantastic as that was, but their quiet conversations in the dark.

That was what now gave Ianto hope.  It was proof that there was more than sex between them.  Jack’s silent nightly visits were another sign that it was that intimacy that the immortal desired now.

_What if the team have scared him off?  What if in trying to protect me they convince Jack that I’m not interested anymore?_

_What if it’s me?  I’ve changed while he’s away, what if he doesn’t like the new me?_

_Well then that’s tough for him.  It’s the new me or no me Jack._   Ianto thought determined to stamp out the nagging doubt.  _Besides he used to like it when I took control,_ he couldn’t help adding naughtily.

_This is awkward.  I need him to be the one who asks me on a date but I need him to know that I’m interested.  That I don’t mind him visiting me at night when he needs to._

_I should probably just tell him._

When Ianto arrived at the Hub though, the sight of Jack was a shock.  He looked like a startled rabbit not the great Captain Harkness at all.

Ianto suddenly realised what the war within Jack was and took pity.  _He wants the date as much as I, but he’s afraid his need of a nightly companion is ruining his chances,_ Ianto thought as he headed for the coffee station.

Nothing about their relationship was normal.  It was something Ianto was glad of because he didn’t want normal, he liked what they had he just wanted acknowledgement.

He returned with the coffee realising that Jack hadn’t moved except to follow him with his eyes.  Obviously Jack needed a sign.

“Good morning Jack,” Ianto said as he handed over the coffee and brushing his fingers against Jack’s

“Morning Ianto,” Jack replied smiling a little.

“I have almost finished my report on the activities and updates you need to know about since you’ve been away.  I’m sorry it wasn’t ready yesterday but it’s become quite long,” Ianto said trying to let Jack know that it was okay, he wasn’t going to mention last night.

“Not a problem I’ll be waiting in my office whenever you’re ready to deliver it,” Jack answered disappointment echoing in his voice.

_Right that does it, time for the direct approach.  He gets to hold me at night so now I get my perk._

He moved past Jack and let his hand caress the firm butt cheek.  It felt good and Jack had a great arse after all.

Ianto couldn’t resist turning around a few steps later to check the effect.  The stunned look on Jack’s face was so priceless he couldn’t stop the smile.

 _Not enough though, a bit more encouragement_ , Ianto thought a few steps later.  He bent over to pick up a pen and loved the feel of Jack’s eyes upon him.

_That’s right Captain Harkness.  You may curl up next to it at night, but you can’t have this arse until you’ve tried to date it._

Feeling incredibly smug Ianto Jones continued to the archives to work on a boring report and await Jack’s response.

 

 

 


	31. Chapter Thirty

Toshiko Sato barely got the chance to step into the Hub when she was summoned to Jack’s office.  She hastily dumped her coat and bag on her chair and hurried in.

“Tosh this Rift Predictor Program how accurate is it?” Jack asked gesturing to her to take a chair.

“I have a high degree of accuracy with normal medium to large surges.  I am working on improving our ability to predict the smaller surges at the moment.  I’m not really sure if I can predict induced surges, those that force their way through the rift, not without using the Rift Manipulator to test it and that’s too dangerous,” She answered nervously.

“Good, good but what sort of time scale are we talking about, minutes, hours, days?” Jack asked not quite perfecting casual.

There was something edgy about Jack and suddenly it made her nervous.  She liked knowing she was doing well, and he suddenly seemed unsatisfied where Gwen was nothing but praise.

“It depends of the size of the activity.  The larger it is, the sooner we know,” she replied apologetically.

“That means that if I asked you what the best evening to invite someone out to dinner is, you would be able to tell me which days are least likely to have major rift activity spoiling our plans,” Jack asked.

Tosh just stared blinking at him, not sure she’d heard correctly.

“Oh and if you have any locations ideas where such dinner plans are most likely to be well received by Ianto I’d appreciate that too,” Jack added dismissing her.

The technical genius rose from the chair slightly stunned and returned to her work station.  In a slight state of shock she put her bag and coat away and activated her rift predictor program.

She ran the conversation over in here mind to check she had understood correctly.  Jack had just asked her when and where would be the best place for a dinner with Ianto.

“Are you all right Tosh?” Owen’s voice made her jump slightly.

“Yes I’m fine, Jack just...” she stopped as she realised Ianto had entered the main area from the archives.

The Welshman gave them both a smile and slight nod before heading up to the coffee station.  Toshiko noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and saw that Jack had come out of his office and was leaning against the frame watching Ianto.

Owen and Tosh said nothing, they just looked from the captain to the archivist and back again.  Jack for his part ignored them starting at Ianto without caring who witnessed.

The Welshman finished a few minutes later and began to hand to coffees out with Jack last.  Tosh and Owen thanked him when they received their drinks and both were sure the archivist looked more graceful as he moved than normal.

The immortal and the young man exchanged smiles with the coffee and Ianto headed back to the archives.  He stopped at Gwen’s desk to lean over and grab some files before heading back.

None of the others missed the view of a well suited arse or the sigh it produced.  Owen and Tosh exchanged looks and then blushes as they realised Jack had caught them.

“Hurry up with that program would you Tosh,” Jack said and retreated to his office.

“Yes Jack,” she said and turned back to her computer.

“What program?” Owen asked.

“Jack wants me to work on the Rift Predictor Program to find an evening that isn’t likely to have any activity,” Tosh replied.

Before Owen could ask why he suddenly got it and raised his eyebrows.  Toshiko smiled in confirmation.

They looked towards Gwen’s desk both remembering the little display.  A conversation between their wiggling eyebrows ensured they both understood.

Tosh had not long ago demanded to know what Jack’s intentions were.  Obviously his intentions were to take her friend on a date.

She knew all about the little conversation Owen had had with both Ianto and Jack.  She had scolded the medic, despite being reassured by the Welshman telling him it was none of his business.

Jack was the one she was concerned about.  His reassurances that he wasn’t going to run again aside, it was obvious that Ianto was the reason he came back, the reason he stayed.

She had been worried that Owen’s little chat would put Jack off.  That he would be so afraid of a hostile reception from Ianto that he wouldn’t even try.

The memory of Ianto leaning over Gwen’s desk made her smile; though probably not for the same reason it made Owen smile.  The Welshman it seemed knew exactly what he wanted and was going about getting it.

The grins they were exchanging became studiously absent as the cogwheel door opened and Gwen arrived.  Owen headed to autopsy leaving Toshiko turned again to her screens feeling very pleased for her friend.

She was determined to sort out a suitable time and place for Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones’ to have the perfect date.

 

 


	32. Chapter Thirty-one

Jack was being dragged by chains onto the bridge of the Valiant.  There was a place for him to be strung up between the other spectators.

He knew what was going to come.  He knew Ianto was about to be dragged before them to be tortured and killed.

Like the first time there was Martha’s family, the Doctor as an old man and Lucy Saxon all waiting to find out what the Master had in stall.  This time though there were not alone.  Martha was there along with Gwen, Owen, Toshiko, Gwen’s Fiancé Rhys and John Hart.

Also there was no nervous uncertainty edged with fear this time but a sense of eager anticipation that made him feel sick.  He could feel their interest increase as Ianto was brought in naked, the same as before.

“Hello everyone,” the Master called out.

“Hello Master,” they all replied as though this was a pantomime.

“Sorry about Jack by the way but you know what he’d like in the presence of beauty,” he added waving at the chains the immortal was straining against.

“Yeah well shaggable,” Owen opined.

“While I may share you sentiments Doctor Harper, there was no need for you to voice them,” the Master said jealousy.

“Sorry Master,” Owen replied his head bowed.

“I’ll deal with you later.  Now Ianto Jones, what am I to do with you?  I am very disappointed.  You should have known better than to sleep with Jack,” the Master said gently.

The Welshman didn’t reply.  He was looking at Jack with such hurt on his face, not physical but a raw broken heart.

“Sure he’s a bit of fun but it’s not as though he’s ever going to give you what you deserve.  I could and you know what they say, once you’ve had a Time Lord you never look back, isn’t that right Doctor?” the Master called.

“Then why did you leave me?”

Jack turned and the Doctor was no longer an old man.  He was now the younger looking man again, and he’d seen weeping tears of grief at the death of the only other member of his race.

“Come on we both know Ianto’s special,” the mad Time Lord replied drawing attention back to himself.

Jack felt shocked by the way the Master was tracing a gloved finger over Ianto’s skin.  Everywhere it touched left a trail of blood behind in alien patterns.

Yet Ianto did not react.  He didn’t wince in pain nor sigh with pleasure.

“Yeah Jack’s not really a hearts and flowers kind of guy, you could do a lot better,” John Hart said sincerely.

“Definitely, you should just stop mooning and find someone nice, like Tosh,” Gwen suggested.

“You’re just saying that because you want him for yourself.  All those bloody secrets you keep, never being home but you can’t stop that being dead obvious,” Rhys grumbled over Tosh’s protests that she didn’t need any help finding a lover.

“Rhys, Rhys how sadly correct you are.  You do know you are the closest thing Gwen has ever shown to good taste.  Seriously though you could do a lot better to,” the Master said kindly over Gwen’s spluttering.

“Yeah I mean the only one in this room she hasn’t got the hots for is Eye Candy.  Now Ianto love I know grief can do strange things, but really, if you are looking at the long term Jack isn’t your man,” John said kindly to the Welshman.

That seemed to be a cue for them to all start talking, all criticising him, all telling Ianto what a bad boyfriend he would make and how the Master was a much better choice.  All except the Doctor who wept.

“No,” Jack shouted and struggled against his bonds.

Suddenly he was by Ianto’s side.  He began to tell him how good he was going to be as a boyfriend, promising him things he had always been too afraid to promise, never wanted to promise so much before.

It was when he promised Ianto he could be joint ruler over the Universe that Jack realised something was wrong.  He looked over to where the others were still criticising him and saw himself freely confessing all his faults.

He looked down to see he was wearing a suit and leather gloves and he was marking Ianto’s skin with blood.  He was the Master and he was seducing the Welshman.

It was working.  All those things he was saying as the Master, all the promises Jack was too afraid of, were turning Ianto away from himself and towards the monster.

Jack felt his hand trail down Ianto’s torso, moved his lips move closer, saw the light in Ianto’s eyes that only his own idiocy had failed to recognise as love before.

“No,” he called out and tried to wrench himself away.

“No no,” he kept calling though the all there was now was darkness.

“It’s alright, it’s alright it was just a nightmare.  You’re safe,” Ianto’s voice soothed, his hands caressing where the chains had gripped him.

Jack opened his eyes to look at his former lover.  There was care and concern he feared to see each morning that he slunk away.

It took him a while to realise where he was, why he was there and then why he shouldn’t be there.

Tosh’s Rift Predictor Program worked great, unfortunately since he asked her all it predicted was lots of activity.  The whole team had worked to exhaustion for the last two weeks until last night.

Like with the previous gap in action Jack had just followed Ianto home.  The Welshman had silently taken care of him and he didn’t deserve it.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Jack cried and fled the warm bed before Ianto could say anything.

Jack reached the front door before he realised he was naked.  He went to grab his Great Coat but remembered it was in Ianto’s bedroom with the rest of his clothes.

He couldn’t believe himself.  He wanted to be in Ianto’s good books so why had he gone to bed naked with him?  Why couldn’t he stop himself?

The Master and the Doctor had been right he was wrong, he was a freak.  He only brought hurt and pain to those he cared about, he wasn’t ever going to be the good boyfriend Ianto deserved.

He curled up in a ball by Ianto’s front door and began to weep.

 


	33. Chapter Thirty-two

“Jack.”

The immortal looked up to see a beautiful, naked angel.  Moonlight and streetlight played across Ianto’s skin taking Jack’s breath.

Jack didn’t resist as Ianto held out a hand to be taken and was lifted up.  He was led into the lounge area and a fleecy blue blanket was draped around his shoulders.

Then Ianto headed for the kitchen.  Jack wasn’t sure if he was meant to stay or follow, so he followed.

Ianto had put some milk in a saucepan by the time Jack entered.  He watched the Welshman add a cinnamon stick and some vanilla essence.

He stirred the milk until it simmered then added sugar and chocolate flakes.  Ianto kept stirring the mixture, pausing only to retrieve two cups.

If his angel hadn’t been so gentle, then this hot chocolate making Adonis would have had a thousand virgins sacrificed to him for a glimpse of his beauty, a sip of his nectar.

Jack suddenly realised that Ianto was getting ready to pour and was still very naked.  He rushed up behind the Welshman, grabbing a corner of his blanket and draped it in front of him to protect him.

He was very aware that his own naked skin pressed into the Welshman’s back.  Jack began to hope that Ianto would lean into him, head back on his chest ready to turn so that he could be kissed.

Instead once the hot liquid was poured Ianto kept his head lowered.  Misunderstanding, Jack accepted the silent reproof, not realising it was his own words in the bedroom just now that sparked this new spike of hurt.

Jack lingered a moment then stepped away.  He headed for the lounge and heard Ianto pick up the mugs and follow him.

He sat and Ianto put the hot chocolate down in front to him.  When Ianto sat beside him, he had acquired a red blanket and was staring at the mugs rather than look at the immortal.

“Jack what did you mean when you said you couldn’t do this anymore?” Ianto asked quietly after the silence stretched.

“I can’t keep coming to you at night.  Not when things between us are unsettled.  It isn’t fair to you,” Jack answered truthfully but wouldn’t meet Ianto’s eyes.

“Your offer of a date was it genuine?”

“Yes,” Jack replied instantly, looking at the Welshman.

“That implies that you intend to...”

“Prove that I would make an excellent boyfriend, the best,” Jack replied hoping Ianto would see his sincerity, over look all the things he had been told in his nightmare.

“And this isn’t the way to do it.  Following your potential boyfriend home and getting into his bed without asking has never really been seen as endearing,” Jack added sadly.

“You never talk about where you went,” Ianto said quietly.

Jack felt instant panic, fear that Ianto would press him like Gwen had began to flood his mind, but the Welshman was still staring at the wall opposite.

“If it had just been a navigational error, you getting your answers and then the Doctor not taking you back to the right time, you would have said.

“If you had had your normal adventures, you wouldn’t have stopped talking about them,” the ‘ _if you had come back at all_ ’ was silently implied but Ianto continued before Jack could speak. “You would have been all ‘I went to this beautiful planet,’ ‘I met this historical figure’”

“Of course you were with the Doctor so it would probably have been more ‘We were arrested and thrown in prison, we escaped’, ‘we stopped this mad scientist’, ‘we saved this planet from war’ and ‘we lead this slave rebellion.’

“You don’t though.  You say as little as you can get away with and change the subject quickly. When you think no one is noticing, you stare at us like you can’t quite believe we’re real, like we’re a favourite dream amongst the nightmares.

“When you left it hurt Jack.”

“I know I’m sorry,” Jack apologised interrupting him.

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t care,” Ianto added quietly.  “I didn’t need your tears and nightmares to tell me you had been hurt inside.

“I can’t just throw you out knowing that, while I might not be able to make things better, I can at least prevent you from being alone.  That’s why we started thing in the first place.”

“I know,” Jack said softly.  “That’s why I have to stop.  It’ll be just like last time.  It’ll start with sympathy and comfort and friendship and before you know it we’ll be shagging each others brains out and I’ll never take you out on that date,” he finished loudly.

“Do you think me that weak?”

“I think your heart is that strong, that caring.  I don’t want things to return to what they were before, I want more,” Jack answered quickly and sincerely.

They lapsed into thoughtful silence for a while.  Then both men reached for their hot chocolate.  Both were looking for an excuse not to speak.

The drink was wonderful on his tongue, but all Jack’s attention was on its creator.

“What?” Ianto asked after a while.

“Just admiring the view,” Jack replied and Ianto blushed.

“I don’t think that’s helping.”

“Hey,” Jack called to get Ianto to look at him and then opened up his own blanket so that the Welshman got the full view. “Just admiring nature’s beauty.”

Ianto’s gaze lingered and Jack didn’t cover himself until the young man turned away.  He felt mildly pleased that Ianto still found him attractive.

After another silence and some cooler hot chocolate Jack said.

“You’re right.  It was terrible.  I’m not ready to talk about it yet but I do want to tell you.

“I was hoping to have a firmer relationship with you.  I do try not to keep on following you home and then we have a terrible day or week and I can’t help it.

“You know I’m surprised I haven’t had more nightmares before now,” Jack said suddenly to change tack.

“Well that’s just typical you Jack,” Ianto said turning to him again.  He was wearing an amused smile that matched his words but disguised the truth that there had been more nightmares.

“Huh?” Jack asked confused.

“Well I believe a night light or a teddy bear to a blue blanket is more traditional not a…” Ianto trailed off letting his fingers touch the hem of Jack’s cover.

“Not a beautiful, wonderful Welshman with a body Greek Gods would envy and a soul angel’s dream of owning.” Jack supplied without thinking.

Suddenly Ianto was kissing him.  He was filled with the same wonderful warmth Jack had felt when they last kissed, over a year ago.

He pulled the naked young man into his lap.  Jack kissed with passion as his hands roved over his favourite back.

When Ianto began to pull away though, Jack let him.  His body said yes but the Welshman’s eyes spoke of the hurt that was still not fully healed, reservations not quite met.

Jack stroked a hand down Ianto’s cheek to tell him it was alright.  He lifted up the red blanket and wrapped it back around Ianto.

“Are you going to…?” Ianto asked indicating the way back to the bedroom.

“I want to but it’s best if I stay here,” Jack replied, his resolve fighting a losing battle every second he looked at the Welshman.

Ianto bent to collect the mugs but Jack’s hands stopped him.

“Leave them I’ll sort them out,” Jack promised.

There was a flushed smile and a whispered “thank you” as Ianto stood.  As he walked away the immortal remembered the last time he had done the Welshman’s washing up he’d been naked.

“Jack,” Ianto called back as he reached the door.

“When… If you ever decide to tell me what happened don’t forget to bring an overnight bag.  Colleague, team mate, friend or lover, whatever we are to each other, whatever you tell me, I’ll take care of you though the night,” Ianto promised.

He held Jack’s gaze for a beat and then was gone.


	34. Chapter Thirty-three

Most of the time Jack loved Gwen Cooper.  She was beautiful, compassionate and spirited.  She was loyal, and had a policeman’s instinct for ferreting out information from people.  She took no crap and wasn’t afraid to tell him when he acted like he was less than human.

Today though he just thought she was beating him at being the office’s most insensitive bitch.

Gwen did currently have the disadvantage of not knowing the subject of Jack’s nightmare the previous night.  That was no excuse however for to drone on and on, eroding the reassurance and comfort that Ianto had instilled in him last night.

Rhys it seems was overjoyed that his fiancé had come home at a reasonable hour.  He had run her a relaxing bath and ordered in a takeaway.

Between the two, Gwen had been revitalised and they had spent the rest of the evening in bed making love.  She didn’t have to tell them all this, it was just her excuse for why she was over an hour late into work.

Of course listing Rhys’ qualifications as the most romantic fiancé, didn’t stop the conversation.  It merely gave her an excuse to glare at Jack a few times because she wished she was able to tell him what she did and hated lying to him.

The conversation turned to wedding plans not long after.  Her usual excitement and enthusiasm becoming more and more unbearable with each word.

To Jack’s mind his nightmare where all of them pointed out is flaws as a potential boyfriend was becoming real.  Okay she wasn’t bluntly saying it like she they had in the dream but every word seemed to imply it with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

He just kept smiling and occasionally teasing while praying that she would find something else to do, like some work.  Jack did not need Rhys’ perfections pointed out to Ianto.

For some reason Ianto and Tosh had become the focus of Gwen’s babbling.  The Welshman had the advantage that his work meant he could move about without offending her while the technical genius was stuck at her desk trying not to look irritated.

“Jack,” Ianto said quickly while Gwen paused for breath.

“Yes Ianto?” Jack asked with equal haste hoping this was something good.

“I’m not sure if this is anything but there have been a number of reports of a Lizard man seen near Splott recently and an alarming number of pet disappearances over the last four days.  Not just cats and dogs but housebound pets,” Ianto informed him.

“Great give me that information, Tosh let’s go check it out.  Ianto see if you can dig up anything about Lizard men in the archives,” Jack ordered and hurried out before Gwen could protest that she wanted to go too.

Once the SUV was on its way though, the technical genius turned to him and asked.

“Why didn’t you bring Gwen?  Surely the sort of house to house we need to do is more her sort of thing.”

Jack glanced at her before replying, “You aren’t very likely to start discussing wedding plans right this second and you looked like you needed the break.”

“What about Ianto and Owen?” she asked.

“Ianto can hide in the archives and Owen can look after himself.”

“Are you saying I can’t look after myself?” Toshiko asked dangerously.

“Tosh I would proudly stand beside you in front of a horde of alien invaders and know you’ve got by back.  Facing Gwen discussing menus for the reception however, in both our cases, discretion is the better part of valour,” he told her truthfully.

Toshiko laughed and he chuckled with her.  After a few moments though she suddenly said, “You know when I get married...” He growled to interrupt her and she laughed again.

They began a conversation about the various disastrous weddings they had been to.  Not just friends or family but ones where Torchwood had been the surprise guests.

They needed the laughter after they reached Splott.  The house to house revealed two potential location of the Lizard man.

They found him at the first and while he was an alien he’d been living there for years and was completely harmless.  They called the others to arrange for him to be collected while they checked out the second place.

The alien they found there was much more dangerous and responsible for the deaths of not just the missing pets but a Weevil and the original owners of the house.  Every room contained a corpse opened for autopsy or dissection.

For a few moments Jack just stared at them, he had a flash back to a similar scene on the Valliant.  Then Tosh said something and he was back looking at this new horror.

The couple who had lived there had no other family so Torchwood tidied everything away.  Jack made himself help as much as possible and allowed Ianto to arrange for them to be buried properly so that they could be remembered with a stone.

That night he turned up and Ianto’s doorstep again.  This time he brought an overnight bag.

 


	35. Chapter Thirty-four

Ianto ushered him in and took Jack’s bag and coat.  He hung the latter up and took the former to the bedroom.  He said nothing about the fact that Jack followed him.

The Welshman then went to the kitchen and brewed some coffee.  The smell was strong and so normal, exactly what Jack needed.

They sat the way they had the night before except they were both dressed.  Ianto didn’t say anything he just waited.

In the silence Jack felt himself relax a little.  He could tell from the look in Ianto’s eyes that he didn’t have to say anything, he could chicken out of his sudden decision to talk and he would still be welcome.

“We went to the end of the universe,” Jack said after a few moments.  “It was dark because there were no more stars.  And there were people there surviving, getting ready to leave for Utopia, the last refuge.

“There was a man, Professor Yana, he had built the engine for the ship that would take them, only it didn’t work.  The Doctor he sorted it out, he was always good at that sort of thing.  We helped Martha and me; she’s the Doctor’s latest travelling companion.

“Only the Professor he wasn’t really human.  Time Lords have a device called a Chameleon Arch that makes them human, makes them believe their human, gives them a back story and everything.

“He was a really Time Lord criminal called the Master.”

“The Master,” Ianto exclaimed recognition in his voice.  Jack looked at him alarmed, wanting to know how his friend knew about such an evil man.

“There’s mention of him in UNIT’s records.  During the late seventies/ early eighties the Doctor worked as UNIT’s Scientific Advisor.  During that time they had dealings with another Time Lord known as the Master, they even managed to imprison him at one stage.  He escaped in the end of course.

“Accounts say that although they were on opposite sides, the Doctor and the Master were often on friendly terms.  As though the battle of wits between them was a game, it worried some people in UNIT, but the Brigadier trusted the Doctor and the Doctor always did what was right,” Ianto explained.

Jack made himself relax once more.  It was just Ianto knowing from the archives.  He was talking decades ago not the recent past.

The man Ianto described didn’t quite fit the man who held him captive.  Then he remembered that the Master had been killed before the Time War and brought back by the Time Lords to fight.

 _Maybe he was brought back wrong._   Jack’s speculation brought him no amusement, the tragedy of the whole thing was too great.

“The Master stole the Doctor’s TARDIS.  As you may have gathered from John’s visit my wrist strap, my vortex manipulator allows me to travel in time.

“I was left behind and I used in to travel here, only I ended up over a century earlier than I intended and it burnt out.  I didn’t know I was immortal then, didn’t realise I would have to wait to find him the slow way.

“Still it was worth it,” Jack said suddenly turning to Ianto with a genuine smile.  The Welshman returned the smile before looking shyly away.

“The Doctor used my Vortex Manipulator to get us back to earth.  We returned a few days after Martha joined him on his travels, several months after I chased after them,” Jack looked at Ianto intently.

He hoped the Welshman would understand what that meant.  Even if the Doctor had wanted to take Jack back to the moment he left, he couldn’t because he would cross his own time stream and create a potentially dangerous paradox.

Ianto nodded and took Jack’s hand.  Such a small gesture to convey the acceptance that the man who left him hadn’t meant to be gone for so long.

Yet it still conveyed the doubts Ianto had of him actually returning.  The disadvantage of courting a Torchwood Archivist was that when you ran off with an exciting Time Lord he knew exactly what you were leaving him for.

“The Doctor had fixed the controls of his TARDIS so that the Master could only travel between the end of the universe and where he collected me, give or take eighteen months.

“The Master was hidden on earth, he was Harold Saxon,” Jack said ominously and Ianto shuddered.  There had been something about the Master’s human front that always had that effect on the Welshman.

“He changed the TARDIS into a Paradox Machine, activated it just after President Winters was killed, used it to bring warriors from the future to enslave the human race.

“We lived for a year under his rule.  Martha escaped, she walked the Earth preparing things so that we could defeat the Master.  He aged the Doctor, held Martha’s family captive and me...”

“You let him hurt you,” Ianto said quietly.  Jack looked at him in shock.

There in the Welshman’s eyes was understanding.  He knew Jack had let himself be harmed, let himself become entertainment for a mad man because it deflected attention away from his friends, from the people of Earth.

There was understanding there because that was what Ianto would have done himself.

An unexpected glimpse of grief and ill considered words from Suzie had prevented Jack from pursuing his attraction to Ianto in the very beginning.  The Immortal knew now that, had he pressed, the Welshman would have given himself as a distraction to keep him from Lisa.

In doing so Jack would have lost Ianto in the aftermath of the Cyberwoman’s attack.  The Welshman would never have forgiven himself, and he might never have started his relationship with the man responsible for his losing her.

There were several minutes of silence where they just held hands.  They exchanged hesitant glances and smiles reassuring each other.

“I spent most of my time chained up in the engine room.  He liked to experiment of the different ways to kill me, stretching the moment out as much as possible but that wasn’t the worst of it.

“He captured you, all of you.  Gwen and Owen first, then Tosh, then you.  You were all tortured and killed in front of me.

“After he murdered Tosh he autopsied her body in front of me.  Pulling...” Jack couldn’t finished the sentence, the squeeze of his hand told him he didn’t need to.

“I don’t know what he did with the bodies of the others.  Yours he had stuffed.  He had it on display in the middle of the conference table for a week.

“You had your eyes closed and you looked like you were just sleeping.  Except you were covered with injuries that hadn’t healed.

“Then someone poured acid or something over your face, destroyed it.  It was probably his wife.  The Master was livid but I didn’t care.

“You’re right I let him hurt me to protect the others, but after that I provoked him deliberately into doing so.  I gave up Ianto, getting free of him no longer mattered to me.

“He spent a week after the acid incident keeping me on the edge of death.  He tested my healing ability to its limit until he got bored.

Tears blurred his vision as he stared at Ianto’s face.  For once it was completely open with compassion, animated, alive and reassuring.

“You wouldn’t let me stay that way though.  Those were my darkest hours and I kept hallucinating, I kept seeing you.

“Then one day Martha was almost killed.  The Master was preparing to destroy all of New York to kill her but he didn’t.

“I saw you that night and you told me not to give up.  That you would save hope for me.  I don’t know what miracle made the Master change his mind, but I figured if my subconscious has such faith, I should to,” Jack said with a smile and Ianto returned it.

“In the end we won, turned time back to the beginning and Lucy Saxon shot her husband.  The Doctor offered to take me with him, travelling around the universe but I knew my place was here, knew I needed to be here,” Jack finished lamely.

Ianto knew it wasn’t everything.  A year of horror was too much for a single night and it was sooner than he intended.  Seeing those bodies today reminded him of Toshiko’s fate.  He found he had to say something or go mad.

They remained silent until Ianto was certain Jack had nothing more to say.  He rose and disappeared into the kitchen.

The Welshman returned before Jack had finished composing himself and rising to his feet.  Ianto crossed to him and held out his hand.

The gesture echoes one of the Doctors, _take my hand, trust me, I will show you the wonders of the universe_.  Jack took it without hesitation.

He followed Ianto into the bedroom relying on the Welshman’s promise to take care of him though the night.

 


	36. Chapter Thirty-five

There was a thoughtful expression on the Welshman’s face as he contemplated his bedroom.  He squeezed his hand gently before letting go.

Then Ianto did something completely unexpected.  He crossed and removed one of the pictures on the wall.

He retrieved a piece of string from his pocked and tied it to the exposed nail.  Then he crossed and opened the wardrobe, hooked it over the door and wrapped the other end around the rail inside so that it went almost straight across.

Ianto looked at his handiwork critically then shrugged as though to say, it would do.  When he turned back to Jack his expression was serious.

He slowly began to undo the buttons of Jack’s shirt.  The look in his eyes told the immortal he shouldn’t help or hinder.

This was not the first time they had done this.  Not the first time Jack had exposed himself emotionally then let Ianto expose him physically.

As the last stitch fell away Jack suddenly wondered why Ianto wasn’t running a bath.  It was one of the strangely spiritual things about the Welshman, he liked to wash everything clean.

Ianto took his right hand and kissed the tip of his little finger, then the knuckle, then drew the finger inside his mouth.  He repeated the process with the next finger and the next.

Once each digit was attended to, he kissed and licked Jack’s palm then the back of his hand.  Around the wrist Ianto sucked bringing up love bites like the marks of bondage.

He worked his way up and down Jack’s arm, not a centimetre of skin was left untouched.  Once complete he pulled back. 

Ianto mimed tying something around Jack’s right wrist then he brought the hand up to the string across the room and pretended to tie his invisible rope to it.

Jack took hold of the string understanding the symbolic bondage.  He was giving his complete trust by staying put while knowing he was still free.

It was while the Welshman repeated the process with his left arm that Jack understood what he was doing.  Ianto was marking him, claiming him.

It wasn’t a claim for himself, the Welshman was simply claiming him back from the Master, back from death.  The attention to every centimetre of his skin would normally be frustrating but right now Jack wanted Ianto to take all of him.

Once the second arm was tied with invisible string, Ianto moved behind Jack.  The immortal couldn’t tell if the shudder down his spine was lingering fear or erotic anticipation.

Whichever it was he was determined not to let go.

The Welshman was methodical.  He varied whether he gave Jack a kiss, lick, nip or love bite but he went up and down neatly so as not to miss anything.

Shoulders and back, under his arms, torso, legs, knees, each foot, each toe all tenderly caressed and claimed.  Every touch sending stronger sensations of pleasure through him as Jack put aside the clinging memory of pain.

His legs were spread wide as Ianto attended his arse.  That tongue scooting around his entrance before slipping inside.

Jack was so glad he had a shower before he turned up on the Welshman’s doorstep.  He moaned loudly with pleasure with every movement, each noise intending to tell Ianto his claim was very accepted.

He mewed with disappointment as the tongue withdrew.  Ianto came around him so that he was kneeling before Jack.

Somewhere in his journey around the immortal’s body the Welshman had removed his own clothes.  Ianto kissed all of Jack’s face and neck taking with him all the tears.

There was now only one area unclaimed.  Jack nodded to Ianto, his eyes begging him to take the hard symbol of complete ownership.

Ianto sucked his fingers into his mouth making Jack moan with desire.  He felt them at his entrance and pushed gently down to accept them.

The Welshman slipped his fingers inside as he accepted one of Jack’s balls into his mouth.  They moved inside him with great care, claiming more of Jack’s spirit with each caress of the prostate.

The second ball was sucked and only Jack’s shaft remained.  Each kiss up and down drove him wilder with their lack of friction.

Ianto took him into his mouth.  He barely had time to get all of him slowly in before Jack came hard.

The Welshman used his free arm to steady the older man as his knees weakened.  It wasn’t until he was stable on his feet that Ianto withdrew.

Ianto stood and kissed Jack.  The taste of himself felt like an exchange of ownership.  He had been taken from the Master and was now being given back, being given his freedom.

The young man looked carefully at Jack.  He wanted to check that his handiwork had been a success.

There was also the matter of the Welshman’s own erection waiting uncertainly.  Ianto did not want to push Jack; he would let it fade in the face of the immortal’s needs.

Jack though didn’t want that hardness to dwindle.  Outwardly he was his own again but inside he wanted a different claim staked.

This time it was Jack who took Ianto’s hands.  He walked backwards until he hit the bed, climbed on and lay down on his back, legs apart, open for his lover.

Ianto kissed him tenderly then manoeuvred to push slowly inside.  Jack gasped as his prostate was touched, every nerve in his body tingling with pleasure.

Gently the Welshman withdrew and pushed back in.  Touching and kissing the immortal as he moved unhurriedly.

It was the slowest, most passionate love making of Jack’s life.  With every tender trust he accepted Ianto’s feelings for him, Ianto’s love.

There was no sadness or hurt in his eyes.  Jack’s terrible story had been enough for him to understand and forgive.

Jack understood now why the claim was on his behalf.  It was an acknowledgement that, while Ianto loved the immortal, he was not healed enough to return his feelings.

As he became hard again he wrapped his arms and legs around the Welshman.  Each touch and kiss Jack hoped was telling Ianto that, while he may not love the same way, what love there was in Jack’s heart was his.

The Welshman wrapped his hand around Jack’s cock and caressed it with the same rhythm as his thrusts.  As Jack felt his second orgasm build he knew the young man was also close.

Ianto came suddenly, the feel of him spilling inside Jack enough to make the immortal come.  In that moment of pure pleasure, when he knew he had given Ianto that was rightly his, Jack blacked out.

 

A sudden chill caused Jack to stir awake.

He looked down to see Ianto curled up beside him.  The covers had slipped exposing his chest and the Welshman’s beautiful back.

In those moments Jack felt no doubts or fears.  He just pulled the cover up and Ianto closer to him and fell back to sleep.


	37. Chapter Thirty-six

Captain Jack Harkness woke to see a beautiful pair of blue eyes staring down at him.  The lovely face they belonged to had wonderful lips too that insisted on kissing him.

Kisses and touches led his libido to stand to full attention.  Jack was opened, entered and came, the best way to start any day.

He was led to the shower and washed tenderly until he was hard again.  They he was turned and so his lover could enter from behind while the water fell upon them.

He was dressed, given the best coffee and breakfast to consume and driven to work.  He felt light headed and buzzed with great energy.

It was two days later, when he overheard Gwen asking Owen about his sudden good mood, that Jack realised why it was wrong.

Captain Jack Harkness had done exactly what he’d promised himself he would not do.  He was having sex with Ianto but still hadn’t taken him on a date.

That had not been what he expected when Ianto promised to take care of him through the night.  He’d even bought pyjamas so that there could be no misunderstandings.

He tried to hide his sudden depression from the others.  The Welshman spent all day in the archives so he was easy to avoid.

Jack hadn’t even checked the list of possible non-rift activity days that Tosh had given him the day after the Lizard Man incident.  A list that said quite clearly that the past two nights, and tonight were rift activity free.

He had missed the opportunity to take Ianto out because he was in such bliss after making love to him.  Now that he realised he was going to miss his last chance for a while because he couldn’t believe what an idiot he was.

Once the others left for the night Ianto went and made the last coffee of the day.  He took it up to Jack’s office took one look at his face and said.

“Alright which one of them said something?  Tell me who pointed out we haven’t been on a date yet and they’ll be on instant decaf for a month.”

Jack blinked at the Welshman and in a very quiet voice replied, “It was me.  I pointed it out.”

“Captain Jack Harkness, what am I to do with you,” Ianto said with an affectionate sigh.

He sat on the sofa and indicated for Jack to join him.  Puzzled the immortal did just that.

“You know for as long as we’ve had a relationship there has always been this division in your mind about what each of us brings.  Given your experience you seem to think that the physical side is what you bring and that’s all you’re good at.

“Because I’m a deep thinker, because I work my way through problems with my mind, you seem to think that the more spiritual side, understanding and feeling are mine.

“While I agree that those are our individual strengths that doesn’t mean we are limited to them.  Relationships are about complimenting each others abilities not always being opposites.

“I for example don’t usually just lie back and think of Wales while we’re having sex.  I know for a fact that with the right look, the right words, I can make you putty for my pleasure,” Ianto said softly leaning closer to Jack.

The immortal felt his groin warm with the truth of the Welshman’s words.  His eyes burned into Jack blotting out all his previous doubts.

“Do you remember the day I poured Sangria over your head,” Ianto whispered like a bucket of iced cocktail over his skin.

It was one of those things they didn’t talk about.  It happened not long after the Cyberwoman incident and Jack made a complete mess of trying to set things straight.

He’d tried taking care of Ianto while all the Welshman could feel was cruelty, because Jack ignored London’s execution rule and didn’t want to use Recon, but hadn’t bothered to tell him.  It had been an unintentional torture.

“After you explained your reasons I began to understand them,” Ianto said quietly.  I think I had realised what you were trying to do but I couldn’t see why.

“Do you think I could have begun to heal if I hadn’t known you cared for my wellbeing?  Do you think I could have seen reason and forgiven you if you hadn’t shown me you weren’t really a monster?

“Do you think I could have stayed in Torchwood if you hadn’t looked after Tosh and me after the Cannibal incident?  If you hadn’t had that daft idea of spending the day in Newport?

“That time we never speak of would not have ended the way it did with anyone else.  I could not have gone to any of the others a week later for physical comfort.

“Do you think losing you would have hurt as much if all you were to me was a nice arse and a powerful cock with a movie star face?  If there wasn’t something spiritual about you that I needed?” a tear rolled down Ianto’s cheek and he brushed it away before Jack could react.

Ianto took a deep breath composing himself.  When he looked back at Jack his smile was warm and brilliant.

“The other night when I said I’d take care of you, I bet you were just expecting a bath and a hot chocolate.  To be honest that was all I was expecting too.

“Hearing your story, I couldn’t leave it at that.  You are a physical person, I couldn’t let the last memory of touch on your skin be one of such torment and pain.

“As for the morning after well, that was the first time since you got back that you have looked in my eyes and I knew you wanted me right then and there, no doubts and fears.

“I just thought, well you are my boyfriend and one of the advantages of having your boyfriend stay over is you get to make love to him in the morning,” Ianto said with a wide smile.

“Boyfriend?  I haven’t even managed to take you on a date,” Jack said confused.

“Jack one of the things you accept when you work for Torchwood is that your social life is rubbish.  The relationships you have are what you can make them around what you do, let’s face it that has always been one of the advantages of us; we don’t always have to leave work to be together.

“When I said yes, I did so knowing that I would love to have dinner and see a movie with you.  I also said yes knowing that the chances of me getting either in the next few months wasn’t very high.

“I know though that you tried and I appreciated all your little gestures, even those that went wrong.  I also know exactly what choosing to come back to me means.  I’m sorry if I was rushing things,” Ianto finished looking away.

Jack stared at him for a few minutes as Ianto’s words sank in.  As they did he stopped feeling like he had cheated his way into Ianto’s bed.  He realised he had contributed all the things he wanted to all along.

“Stay with me tonight, have breakfast with me tomorrow?” Jack asked.

“Yes,” Ianto replied.

The Welshman stood and walked to the hatch were Jack’s quarters were.  The immortal sent the others a message telling them they could be in late, Rift permitting.

It felt strange going down the ladder to his bunk, since getting back it made him feel isolated from everything but seeing Ianto Jones at the bottom made all worry and loneliness flee.

 

 


	38. Chapter Thirty-seven

The night Jack had told Ianto about what happened in the year that never was, as he kissed and caressed the immortal’s body the Welshman decided his future.

He knew his fear and jealousy of the Doctor would always be there.  Like Jack, there was more to the Time Lord than was on the surface, they had more in common than Ianto ever would.

Jack though hadn’t stayed with him.  Hadn’t gone travelling around the universe he had come back to Ianto.

It was for more than just a respite while his internal wounds healed.  More than Jack knowing Ianto’s feelings and knowing he wouldn’t be rejected.

Jack’s flirting was not an issue Ianto even considered.  Having played roles himself, and being a James Bond fan, allowed him to accept that the flirting was part of the Captain’s role, part of how he put people at ease, put people backs up or just as part of his smoke screen so people couldn’t see him.

There were people who fancied him rotten, like Gwen, they were always going to be there. Jack was handsome and charming, but sometimes someone would get under the immortal’s skin too.

Such people were always going to make him jealous.  Ianto had to trust Jack to know his feelings, to know how hurt he would be if he crossed the line.

Then the Welshman reflected on the relationship they had before.  All the incidents Ianto would mention two days later passed though his mind as his mouth moved across Jack’s skin that night.

With that in mind he considered Jack’s story, his year of hell and all the horror Ianto was now trying to erase.  This was more the role of a special friend than a lover, yet the Welshman realised the only difference between being Jack’s special friend and boyfriend was having been asked on a date.

He had worked his way thoroughly over Jack’s skin, inside him and tried to ignore the way his own body reacted.  Tonight was meant to be about looking after Jack, and this was what he needed.

When Jack led them to the bed he realised that the immortal needed more, needed to be accepted by Ianto, and in the moment he entered Jack he did, body and soul, as his lover, his boyfriend.

Ianto had been hoping it would take Jack longer than two days to realise.  This strange insistence on a date, the mild insecurity, was what made it so easy to accept Jack back because it spoke of his sincerity with more truth than words.

Now here he was in Jack’s bunk after so much time had passed.  Ianto hadn’t been here since the Captain’s disappearance; he wasn’t sure what he was feeling.

He felt Jack land and step up behind him.

“You know your bunk isn’t really big enough for two men our size,” Ianto said looking and the bunk critically.

“Yes it is, it means I don’t need and excuse for you to snuggle close to me,” Jack answered putting his arms around Ianto.

“You don’t need excuses anymore.”

Jack turned his head and kissed him.  Ianto felt desire ignite and nerves fade.

“Ianto,” Jack began and the Welshman could see the hesitancy in his eyes.

“Shut up,” he replied softly.  “Now be a good boyfriend and do what you do best.”

He gained another kiss and the hands around him began to slip his buttons free.  Jacket, waistcoat and shirt all swiftly fell to the ground.

Ianto could feel Jack’s lips work across his back, feel kisses and love bites touch his skin in a familiar pattern.  Yet suddenly it was too slow.

Ianto turned and pulled Jack up.  He walked him back against the ladder and kissed him ferociously.

He fumbled over Jack’s shirt, practically ripped the t-shirt from his lovers body.  It took Ianto a few minutes to realise that Jack had lowered their trousers and underwear and their cock’s were now grinding together.

The immortal pushed him gently back and helped him step out of his trousers, shoes and socks.  He walked Ianto back to the bed to lie on his back.

He moved his mouth around Ianto’s body touching all his favourite spots.  The look in Jack’s eyes was enough for him to relax and surrender to the joyful pleasure he felt.

As Jack worked his way around the Welshman’s torso the immortal realised something was different.

That shouldn’t have been much of a surprise as every time with Ianto always seemed different, not just the physical positions but sometimes emotionally different enough to make the same act feel new.

 _There,_ Jack thought as the Welshman moaned softly as he caressed a nipple with his teeth.  _That was different._

In most of their encounters Ianto had been quiet.  Unless he was in a wild passion or Jack asked, it was rare for the Welshman to make a noise, they had always been something to work for.

He was still puzzled by this as he turned his attention to Ianto’s cock.  A sudden erratic thrust that almost gagged him suddenly gave Jack the answer.

Ianto had been holding back.  Even in the throes of passion, the Welshman still kept a slither of control.

It was a barrier, a protection around his heart to prevent himself from giving to a friend what belonged to a lover.  Now it was unnecessary and Jack accepted each moan and thrust as a token of affection.

He suddenly needed Ianto to come.  Wanted to taste him and be inside him.  He worked his wicked magic with his tongue and fingers and was swiftly rewarded.

Jack milked Ianto and hoped he had opened the Welshman enough.  As he pushed inside Ianto gazed at him with those beautiful eyes.

A squeeze started Jack moving.  As Ianto moaned with contented pleasure, he because faster and faster until he came hard.

Looking down he felt reluctant to move, reluctant to pull free.  Ianto Jones smiled the most beautiful smile in the universe.

“Welcome home Jack,” he said softly.

The whole world seemed to spin as Jack realised that this time, this place, this bed with this gorgeous Welshman in it, this right now this was home.

Jack stayed where he was, kissing and touching until their bodies were ready to make love again.  Each time they climaxed they became reluctant to part, shifting only for a new position to make up for lost time.

Only when they were both exhausted did they entwine themselves in each other’s arms to go to sleep.

The last thing both men thought was a vow to keep the other in their arms for as long as possible.


	39. Epilogue

Captain Jack Harkness sat down at the table in his favourite Chinese Restaurant and grinned.  He spent more time looking at the person sat opposite him than he did the Menu, which was why he ended up ordering far too much.

He felt excited and nervous and as soon as the waiter left he launched into the first story that came into his head.  He just couldn’t believe how something as simple as a meal felt like the most important thing he would ever do with his life.

Ianto Jones sat serenely opposite him not wearing his best suit; the one that detracted and accentuated all the right areas, the one that guaranteed that at the end of the day, the Welshman would be stripped out of it and pleasured with the exquisite torture the tease deserved.

No, tonight Ianto Jones was wearing the suit that Jack had bought him the day after he returned.  The suit that was part courting gift, and part apology for intruding on him the night before, seeing it accepted and worn had given the immortal hope.

The only other occasion Ianto had worn that suit was the day after Tommy returned to 1918.  A silent message that things would be alright with Tosh, and that Jack’s words the night before Tommy returned had mean a great deal to the Welshman.

He hadn’t worn it after the incident with the Space Whale. That told the captain that, while Ianto understood, accepted what Jack had said and could offer his reassurance, the Welshman was still hurt.

That was why tonight was so important.  Why he had planned everything with meticulous care.   Why it meant so much to see that suit on Ianto Jones’ body.

Silently Jack made a vow that if anything happened to that suit he would first take care of the man inside it and then buy a new one.

Then Jack realised that for the past two minutes he had just been staring at Ianto.  The Welshman didn’t seem to mind but he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Ianto,” Jack said hesitantly as a thought popped into his mind.

“Yes Jack?”

“Don’t think I’m not enjoying myself because I am, I really am,” Jack said in earnest and the Welshman smiled.  “But I can’t see how tonight is different from all the other meals we’ve eaten together.” That sentence came out wrong and he instantly wanted to take it back.

He wasn’t trying to say that tonight was normal seeming or boring.  Jack just couldn’t see how tonight was more special for Ianto than any other meal.

The Welshman didn’t frown although his eyes dropped to the table.  Ianto then surprised Jack by selecting a sweet and sour port ball with his chop sticks and bringing it up to the immortal’s mouth to be accepted.

“You’re doing fine,” Ianto reassured Jack as he chewed.  “Okay as first dates go it’s a little overdue and we both know each other very well but that’s not what’s important.

“You asked me to be here tonight.  No Torchwood, no mission, just you and me spending time alone away from everything.

“It makes me feel special,” Ianto said smiling.

“But all I’ve done is talk about me, what about you?” Jack said trying to make up for the implication that Ianto didn’t feel special all the time.

“I like listening to your stories.  Besides you’ve read my file that’s basically it.  I’m quite ordinary and not very interesting,” Ianto replied sincerely.

This time it was Jack who secured a piece of lemon chicken and brought it to Ianto’s lips.  The Welshman accepted with a coy smile that touched the immortal’s heart.

“Ianto Jones someone as amazing as you can only ever be extraordinary,” Jack told him and the young man blushed with pleasure.

Suddenly Jack knew that he didn’t need impressive stories.  The silence between them was familiar and magical and he realised how long, and how deeply, he had been falling for Ianto Jones.

They hardly spoke for the rest of the meal.  If an amusing thought crossed their minds they shared it.  Every now and then they selected a morsel to feed the other.

When full they asked to take the rest home although both men found room for a sorbet.  Jack drove Ianto home and was invited into the flat for coffee, then into the bedroom for sex.

In the post-coital bliss they just stared at each other.  Both amazed to be there, both trying not to grin too much about the success of their evening.

Jack stroked Ianto’s hair and his eyelids began to get heaver.  As the Welshman relaxed the immortal wondered how he managed to get things right with such an angel.

“You know you are the only person that I’ve ever left and that I’ve come back to,” Jack said quietly when he was certain the young man was asleep.

“I’ve left a lot of people, for a lot of reasons and you are the only one I knew it would hurt more if I stayed away from you, and not tried, than if I returned and you rejected me.  It still amazes me that you took me back, that you think I'm special enough to merit a second chance.

“You know between Torchwood and being a friend of the Doctor I will probably have to leave you from time to time.  But as long as you’re mine Ianto Jones I will always return to you.”

Jack smiled at his sleeping angel and moved closer to him.  He closed his eyes and entered a meditative sleep knowing he was the luckiest being in the universe.

 

Fin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who are following the Awaiting Universe series links, Puck the Cupid will be the next story. The next story for those following the Company Series links the next story will be The Cruelest Company and the Kindest, which I will begin posting shortly.


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